


Tell Your Heart To Beat Again

by Sei_Bellissima



Category: SteamWorld Heist
Genre: (Out of context at least), Angst, Angst and Humor, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Canon-Typical Violence, Emotional Baggage, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Families of Choice, Gen, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, I feel too lazy to add the tags for everyone else at the moment forgive me, I'm so sorry Piper you are very loved I promise, Kidnapping, Post-Game, RoboWhump, Robot Feels, SteamWorld Heist Spoilers, Survivor Guilt, Whump, headcanon heavy, yeah this is downright whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-11
Updated: 2019-12-09
Packaged: 2020-02-27 12:48:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 41,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18739357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sei_Bellissima/pseuds/Sei_Bellissima
Summary: A bump in the night turns out to be her worst fears realized as all of Piper’s crew is brutally torn away from her. With only her fragmented hope to hold on to, she scours The Outskirts to find out where they have been taken, dealing with her own emotional burdens in the process.She never realized how lonely it got without her team – her family – around to keep her company.Takes place sometime after the events of Heist.





	1. Didn't See It Coming

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before you begin reading, let me preface this by saying there will be language and violence typical of what you would see in Heist. There will be some out of context spoilers for Heist, as well as HUGE spoilers and references to SteamWorld Dig 2. And some references to SteamWorld Quest. You don’t have to play Quest to understand this, but as for Dig 2… there may be some things you won’t understand if you haven’t played that one. I’ve tried to write it in a way that requires little knowledge of that game as possible, but all these games intertwine so much that the direction this story ended up going somehow connected things in a way I didn’t think possible. Oh well…
> 
> A lot of my personal headcanons will come into play in this fic. Pretty much all of them are self-explanatory but if something doesn’t seem right or you’ve got questions feel free to contact me on Tumblr: http://sw-seibellissima.tumblr.com
> 
> Also I found out while I was writing this that my friend Bugg was writing the complete opposite scenario to this fic :P I’ll leave a link at the bottom for you guys to read it, go check it out!

Another quiet night found Piper Faraday’s crew aboard the _Déjà vu_ , left to their own devices as the spaceship chugged on to its next destination. The band of space-pirates-turned-world-saviors had been summoned to take care of some lingering Scrappers that were bothering the locals, and while they would have done it anyway, the offered cash reward was quite an incentive for them—some of them had dreams that needed funding, and darn it if Piper wasn’t going to help fulfill them.

The captain herself was relishing the rare moment of peace and quiet while she calculated next month’s spoils, pencil flowing across the page like a fish through the sea. Scribbly notes covered the page from head to toe, yet lead found paper time and time again as she filled in every available space that she could find.

Just as she finished up she heard approaching footsteps, and so she placed her pencil on the desk, looking over her shoulder to find the hunched form of Fen, their antennae twitching in curiosity.

“Hey Captain, what are you doing?” they asked, taking a step closer to look over her shoulder at the desk. Piper gathered the papers accumulated on the desk into a stack, bumping the sides on the wooden surface to straighten the pile.

“Just a bit of paperwork,” she said, “Figuring out how we’re going to split this month’s profits.”

The two blue squares that served as Fen’s eyes blinked as they moved to her side. They got really close to the stack of papers, to the point where they were sticking their face in it. “But… what do these squiggly symbols mean?”

Piper raised her brows at that. “You don’t know how to read?”

Fen raised their head from the desk and stared at her, head cocked to the side. “I… don’t think so.”

Piper shook her head in disbelief; poor Fen had been secluded from the world for so long they didn’t even know how to read. “All right, let’s see what we can do to fix that, now shall we?” she said, opening a drawer and pulling a blank sheet of paper out. In quick, practiced movements she jotted down all the letters of the alphabet, nice and big so they would be easy to see. Piper dropped her pencil again and put a hand on Fen’s back, drawing them closer to the paper. With her other hand she pointed to the letter ‘A’ and said, “Now that’s the letter—”

Her teaching was interrupted by a rather loud smash coming from below, gasps of varied tones coming within seconds of each other. Piper sighed, already dreading the oncoming explanation. “What was that?!”

“Our resident scientist spilled a dangerous liquid again!” yelled the piratey voice of Seabrass, a hint of annoyance in his voice.

“It’s _not_ dangerous! It’s the liquidized cerumen of an unidentified species!” came Dora’s protest, sounding just as unhappy as Seabrass.

“I don’t know what that be, but it stinks worse than the carcass of a whale,” Seabrass complained.

Just as he finished saying that, an unpleasant odor wafted up into Piper’s quarters, and she put a hand to her mouth to suppress a gag. She was afraid to find out what it might look like down there, but she didn’t really have a choice. Turning to Fen, she said, “I have to take care of this, but I’ll finish teaching you later, okay?”

Fen lowered their head, chirping a disappointed note, but ultimately didn’t object and nodded in understanding. With that, Piper leaped out of her chair and hopped down the nearest ladder. As she touched the floor she noticed that Dora had already pulled out a roll of paper towels and was vigorously wiping at her mess. Ivanski seemed to be the only one with enough heart to help her—which disappointed Piper, but she wasn’t going to force anyone else to drop what they’re doing to help with chores. Soon enough Piper was on her knees, scrubbing at the orange substance, all while trying to avoid gagging at the smell.

“Why do you even keep this stuff around on the ship?” she asked Dora, ripping another towel from the roll.

Dora seemed more than enthusiastic to answer, “Zoology is my passion, Captain! There’s still so much out there I don’t know about!”

Meanwhile, in another part of the ship, Payroll and Billy were seated at a table, deep in a game of cards. Billy was valiant and clever, but when it came time for show of hands, he was completely crushed. Payroll had a lot of experience up his sleeve and was hard to beat, even in a game played just for fun!

“Ah, left in the lurch!” the former con artist exclaimed. “Better luck next time, pal.”

Billy slouched miserably into his chair, grumbling in his blubs and bloops. Losing was no fun! And he was brutally _murdered_ _,_ so he felt absolutely humiliated…

A smirk slowly made its way across Billy’s face as he got an idea. Perhaps it wouldn’t be such a bad night after all…

While Payroll was reveling in his victory, unaware of his surroundings, Billy lunged forward from his seat onto the table, sending the playing tokens everywhere with the wild movement. He swiped the purple hat from Payroll’s head, and jumped off the table and to the side, twirling the hat playfully with his finger.

Payroll was stunned, patting his hatless head in confusion as he processed what happened, and once he finished that, he turned to Billy with a pleading look on his face. “Hey, give that back! I’ll have you know that hat’s made of a rare, high quality velvet!”

With a _blub_ of glee Billy ran off with the hat, weaving around obstacles and crewmates minding their own business, scaring some of them silly. Payroll, a master of mobility that was quick on his wheel, made chase—however, their game of cat-and-mouse was quite noisy and bothersome, riling up the others into complaining. It wasn’t long before Piper heard the commotion: another problem placed on the tired captain’s shoulders.

“Yeah, can we not?!” she begged, scrubbing the floor with a renewed energy, worried at the prospect that she has another issue to deal with. “I already have a mess to clean up here, I don’t want another one—”

Not looking at where he was going, Billy accidentally tackled Piper to the floor, face-first into the gooey liquid. Payroll followed close behind, and, seeing the mess before him, swerved around the steambots. He lost control and streaked the orangey stuff all over the place before finally crashing into the wall. Poor Valentine, who had dozed off early, was startled out of a blissful sleep and fell out of his bedsheets.

Piper pushed Billy off of herself with a pained grunt, sitting up and rubbing off the yucky goo that had gotten into her optics. With her cleared vision, she could see that most of her crew had gathered around the scene, almost all of them starting at her. Her face started to burn with embarrassment, but she refused to let her feelings show outwardly. “All of you are going to help clean up, _now_ ,” she ordered in a strict tone.

Seabrass was the first to whine, as usual. “Gyarrh, but I didn’t do anything!”

Piper held up her index finger, shushing him. “Not another word! All of you are going to help clean up, Captain’s orders.” At that, Seabrass only grumbled under his breath and walked crookedly over to the paper towel roll, pulling a bunch of sheets off in angry, untamed movements. Piper would’ve laughed at the sight if she wasn’t in such a sour mood.

“Blub?” came a worried gurgle from her side, and she turned to see Billy offering her his hand, an apologetic expression covering his face. If only to please him, Piper gripped his hand and allowed him to help her up. She could feel the junk sticking in her joints as she moved, and it absolutely disgusted her.

Piper then noticed both Ivanski and Fen coming up to her, and there was a certain look in their eyes that told Piper they had something to say. “Bogdan? Fen? What’s up?” she asked, trying to dismiss her aggravation.

“Are you okay, Captain?” asked Fen, the blue eyes on their face-screen transfigured to express concern.

“I’m all right, Fen; don’t worry about me. You should help clean up.”

“Captain can go clean herself up; Ivanski and crew will take care of mess,” Ivanski said.

“No, I’m gonna help, I mean—”

“Captain clean yucky goo from joints; crew will clean up ship,” Ivanski insisted, crossing his arms sternly. He could be extremely stubborn when he wanted to, and Piper knew from experience that he was hard to sway when he was like this.

“All right, all right, I’m going!” she said, raising her arms in defeat. Fen giggled as she went past them and up the ladder.

As she grabbed a cleaning solution and started to put it in her joints, she found her mind wandering, thinking about her crew and back on all the trouble they got into. They got into so much trouble at times, Piper swore, they could drive her nuts. She had to dissolve countless arguments and clean up even more messes. Not to mention the times where someone got especially upset at something, leading to an emotional outburst. No one else seemed to be as great as the comfort stuff as she was, so she often found herself at the troubled crewmate’s side, talking it out with them or simply being there for them. It sometimes made _her_ want to scream or cry, but she had to be strong for them; she was their captain, after all. The one who always led them to victory; the one who had everyone’s back.

To be honest, she wouldn’t have it any other way. It was the role fate put her in, and it wasn’t that bad. And if she said she didn’t appreciate having her crew around, she’d be telling a terrible lie.

She loved them to death. To Piper, her crew was family.

Too bad she couldn’t quite build up the courage to tell them that.

* * *

“...Aaaand this one?”

Fen scrutinized the letter on the page before blurting out, “EfffffffaaAAA—”

“Okay, okay, don’t hurt yourself. You almost got it.” Piper had been teaching Fen the alphabet over the past hour or so, and while Fen was a fast learner, some letters took more effort to stick than others. Piper could tell that Fen was getting frustrated with themself, so she figured that now was a good time to wrap it up. Besides, it was getting late, and they had a busy day ahead of them.

Stealing a quick glance at Fen as she put the papers away, Piper saw that their antennae had drooped, a tell-tale sign that they were tired. “Hey, Fen. You did good. No one can master anything in a day. Sally’s still learning, too.”

“Ah keep gettin’ my U’s and V’s mixed up!” came the indignant yell.

“Can I try again tomorrow?” Fen asked.

Piper nodded, standing up from her desk. “Of course. Now how about you get some rest? It’s getting late.”

After wishing her goodnight, Fen complied and scuttled down the nearest ladder to sleep in their corner (Let’s see how long they’ll last there this time; Piper thought to herself. Fen didn’t like sleeping in one spot; oftentimes the crew woke up to find them snoozing in the most bizarre locations).

With Fen taken care of, Piper walked to the ship’s controls, which were only a couple long strides from her desk. “How’s it going, Wonky?”

“The solar wind is blowing in our favor today, Ma’am. We might get to our destination a lot sooner than I initially though.” Wonky tapped a few dials on the control board, checking various measurements.

“Sounds great. Want me to take the helm for a while, so you can get some rest?”

“But Ma’am, you’ve been on your feet all day… Are you sure?”

“And you’ve been at the wheel all day. Oh yeah, and I actually fell asleep this afternoon, somehow. The crew let me nap for a few hours before Valentine decided to scare me awake,” Piper said, putting her hands up in a mock scary gesture.

“That doesn’t sound pleasant.”

“It wasn’t.”

“...You sure you can stay awake at the controls this time? And not doze off on them and make the ship veer off course like last time?”

Piper’s face burned at the memory. They were supposed to go to an outpost to grab some water, and Piper insisted to be at the controls that night. The next morning everyone awoke to Piper hanging haphazardly on the steering wheel, the _Déjà vu_ sailing through Deep Space. They would have gotten stranded if it weren’t for a deep diving vessel coming in from a scouting mission noticing them. “Wonky, I’ll be fine, really. Get some rest,” she affirmed, crossing her arms.

“Okay then. Goodnight, Captain.” Wonky let go of the wheel and grabbed his plant, Earnest, from its perch and a watering can from the nearby shelf. Piper watched him perform his nightly routine with the plant – watering it and setting it by the window – and settled into a bed made especially for him: a bed built in a high position, covered in loose blankets for him to easily slip into.

With a satisfied sigh Piper grabbed the wheel, looking out into the deeps vastness of space. The Core shone dimly from the right, bathing the chunks in a mellow orange glow. Never a sight to tire of, stars covered the blanket of darkness, each and every one a spectacle to behold.

_...Scrap, I’m not drifting off course, am I?_

Piper turned her attention to control board, checking various gauges and tools; and much to her relief, she wasn’t off course. Damn her tendency to space out at the most inconvenient times… She wanted to get to her destination as quickly as she could, to put a prompt stop to the Scrappers’ acts of violence. She didn’t want people to get hurt again – or scrapped – just because she was _too slow_ —

Piper took in a sharp breath and shook her head, as if to cast the negative memories from her thoughts. She didn’t like to think about _that time_ , but it still found its way into her train of thought every now and then… It didn’t matter now. She has her crew – her family – and she won’t let anything happen to them.

Just then, a loud voice coming from downstairs drew Piper out of her thoughts.

“Hey! Captain said lights out, you two!”

Piper easily identified it as Beatrix’s, and she shook her head in amusement. When Piper wasn’t bossing everyone around, Bea was probably doing it instead. Although it was amusing to hear, Piper still took time to make it clear that _she_ was in charge around here. She only let it slide sometimes because she knew Beatrix was only trying to help, and it occasionally led to some hilarious exchanges taking place between crewmates.

“But we’re almost done! Give us a few more minutes!” Payroll protested.

Piper gave a half smile. _Wonder who he roped into playing cards with him this time…_

“Nope. C’mon, pack it up and go to bed. We’ve got a day full of fighting Scrappers ahead of us.”

The ensuing back and forth banter was short-lived, but it ended with Bea convincing Payroll to put a halt on the game for the night and go to bed like he was supposed to.

The whole time, Piper was resisting the urge to laugh at their antics. Just one of the many reasons she loved her crew so much, they could brighten her day.

She wouldn’t have it any other way.

* * *

Funny how things can spiral downhill so quickly.

Piper didn’t expect that spiral to begin with a literal bump in the night: a terribly loud _bang_ that shook her from her sleep, making her nearly fall off of the steering wheel. It was when she caught herself with her hands, sensing the heavy footsteps resonating through the floor, that she came to a terrifying conclusion:

_Intruders._

She was already on her feet, dashing through the darkness to grab her weapon. Reaching a ladder, she didn’t bother to use the rungs and lept down, landing with a heavy thud.

“Oh _scrap,_ where’d they come from?”

Piper felt her gears turning ten times faster at the sound of her crew’s voices; _they sounded so scared, so afraid—_

And then she bumped into someone with a harsh “Oomph”.

“Captain, is that you?” said the worried voice of Valentine.

Piper didn’t hesitate to grab him by the hand and resume sprinting. “Valentine, what’s happening?!” she yelled, barely audible above the clanging metal that had begun to fill the air.

“I don’t know; Scrappers got in somehow!”

“ _Scrap!_ ”

Then she heard it: a chilling, steam-curdling _scream_ coming from one of her own, and all at once Piper wanted to stop, turn around and run to them, hug them, tell them they’re going to be okay but she couldn’t and she was so _scared for them and_ —

The bullet came out of nowhere, penetrating the back of Piper’s head, a particularly sensitive spot. She yelled in pain, stumbling to the floor, Valentine falling along with her. She heard him yelp in surprise as his hand was torn from hers, and she reached out with a strangled cry of her own. “No, give him _back—_ ”

Her pleads were silenced with more bullets: one to her arm, one to her chest, one to her leg, and _oh cog it hurt so much_.

“We got what we came for; let’s get outta here.”

Steam curling out of her vents like and angry thundercloud, Piper struggled to her feet, staggering in the direction of the voices. “ _No, no, no, please—_ ”

“ _Captaaain!_ ”

That call. That terrified, desperate call for her aid wrenched her heart, weakened her legs, made her realize she was already too late as she fell to her knees, body shaking, breathing laced with panic; and then the door closed with a bang.

Silence. Cold. Darkness. _Pain_.

Ignoring her battered body’s protests Piper fought to her feet again and fumbled for a lantern, silently praying that this was all a bad nightmare and that she would just wake up already. _Please don’t be gone, please don’t be gone_ , she pleaded, over and over and over again, even as she lit the lantern with shaking hands, lifting it up with her good arm, searching through her crews’ quarters.

Empty. Empty. Empty. All the rooms were empty. Wonky’s gone too; he was ripped from the ceiling.

No.

_No._

_NO._

“ _Noooo!_ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Buckle up. ;)
> 
> Here’s the link to sbuggbot’s fic that I mentioned earlier; it’s called “M.I.A. Captain” and it’s really good!: <https://archiveofourown.org/works/18499621>


	2. Hide It Away

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm currently waiting for my taxi to the airport but it feels like it's taking forever
> 
> So here, take this

It was as if the Scrappers used some form of teleportation to get onto the _Déjà vu_ , whatever ship they used to get here now gone without a trace. Piper had wanted to immediately go after it, but without a lead to follow she was in the dark.

It might not be a wise decision to follow anyway; she was injured. And _leaking._ Piper knew how to patch up little injuries, even how to replace loose springs or gears, but she couldn’t fix wounds _this_ deep. She had to seek help right away.

Despite her body screaming in pain, Piper managed to figure out her location relative to the closest bar: which happened to be Lola’s. Perhaps she could get Taps to help her find out where her crew was taken and receive the medical attention she needed in the process.

She returned to the wheel and quickly turned it to the side—a bit too quickly, as the ship _lurched_ sideways, making Piper lose her balance. She flinched as things clattered to the floor in the background, and was fast to correct the ship’s position. Looking through the binoculars, she confirmed that she was on course to Lola’s. She just needed to stay focused, keep the ship going straight and make sure she didn’t hit any obstacles.

_Stay focused…_

Damn it, those Scrappers really hit her hard. Piper didn’t expect every single one of those bullets to penetrate her metal plating, but they did. And now she was leaking out, hearing the _drip drip drip_ of her fluids hitting the floor. Sensing her increasing lack of water, her body started to run overtime, producing much more steam than what was probably good for her.

_Drip. Drip. Drip. Hiss. Drip._

_Keep going, keep it straight_.

Steam was pouring out of her vents, surrounding her like a fog. Her hands shook on the wheel as she started to feel the effects of her loss of fluids. Her head felt clouded, so much steam pressure was building up in her body that she felt about ready to burst, and on top of that she couldn’t distinguish between hot or cold anymore. Her body was wracked with shivers yet the fire in her furnace burned with fury.

 _But she was almost there_.

Tightening her grip on the wheel, Piper swallowed her discomfort and pushed on. She would not let her crew down.

* * *

With the rush hour passing, the crowds at Lola’s had dwindled to the odd straggler here and there, idle chatter hushed and just audible above the ambient music. A perfect time to grab a drink and unwind, if that was your sort of thing.

The barbot, Taps, was cleaning up after the group that had just left when a familiar face came in, sitting down on the stool in front of her. Taps cleared away the rest of the empty glasses and gave a nod of acknowledgment to the newcomer. “Hello, Jorgen. The norm?”

The hefty steambot on the stool grunted in response, giving the bartender a friendly smile. He pulled out the cash to pay for his drink while Taps snatched it off the shelf. With well-practiced movements, she poured the drink into the glass, corked the bottle and slipped the glass onto the counter, stowing away the payment. It was all done in less than thirty seconds: a result of her many years of serving the ‘bots in the colony.

Seeing that there was no one else that needed anything at the moment, Taps grabbed a glass that was soaking in the sink and started polishing it as she rolled back over to where Jorgen was seated. “How’s the family, Jorgen?”

“Mmph,” was the response she received. Well, the only type of response she could receive anyway. Jorgen had trouble speaking the common language, but he had his own way of communicating that worked just fine with everyone else.

“Glad to hear! That’s good land in better hands right there.”

“Hmmmph.”

“What’s that?” Taps frowned, studying her customer’s posture. His drink remained untouched, and he held his body in a tensed position, face hard with focus. Jorgen was an odd fellow, possessing a sixth sense that she had never seen in a steambot. And she had seen a lot of steambots in her time as a bartender, so that was saying a lot.

Right now, that sixth sense seemed to be acting up again. Something was coming, and Taps was not looking forward to finding out what is was.

“What’s going on big guy; I already had to deal with a bunch of drunkards today—”

The bar shook violently around her, swaying her on her wheel. Before she could fall down Jorgen leaped out of his stool and caught her by the arm, just as the building stopped shaking. “What the heck was that?!” she exclaimed.

Turning her head to the sound of a door opening, Taps was pleasantly surprised to see the interior of Piper Faraday’s ship on the other side. A good chat with the captain always put her in a decent mood. Sure enough, Piper herself had come to the doorway, and Taps greeted her with her signature customer service smile. “Hey Captain, it’s been a while!”

But Piper didn’t respond; and it was then Taps realized she should have taken the bar being shaken as a warning. Piper looked _terrible_ , with three very visible bullet wounds leaking water and hydraulic fluid. Oil was also dripping from her joints, streaking dark stains across her body. She leaned heavily on the doorway, drooped slightly forward, legs shaking like a baby deer’s. She had a dazed look in her eyes and overall appeared like she was about to pass out.

Which she did.

Taps had just enough time to whirl around the counter and catch Piper before her head hit the floor. Her limp body was _burning up_ in her arms, and it took all that Taps had to not drop her.

“Is there a repairbot in the house?!”

* * *

_PAIN, PAIN, PAIN! OW OW OW OW—_

Piper’s first thoughts as she woke were nothing but her acknowledging the fact that everything hurt like _crazy._ So much, in fact that it hurt to move, so she instead opted to stay still, cracking open her tired optics. But dangit, it hurt to look at things too. Everything was too bright for her at the moment so she closed her eyes again, focusing on the voices coming from… somewhere around her.

“Look, something obviously happened, and I’m gonna find out one way or another.”

“Yeah? So?”

“I want you to look into it, damn it!”

“I don’t work for free, Taps.”

“Fine, I’ll pay you. Just find out what happened, please.”

The angry voices brought on another pain to the weary captain, this time in the form of a headache. With a quiet sigh she decided that she would just go back to sleep and find out what’s happening later.

...There’s something fuzzy and soft surrounding her. It felt _heavenly_. Gollee, there’s a nice warm sensation coming from her right, too. She could get used to this.

In spite of herself, Piper used the last bit of her energy to curl up to the warmth, and fell back into a deep slumber.

* * *

When Piper woke up again, the pain wasn’t as nearly as bad as it was before, but it was still enough to keep her from wanting to get up. Scrap, she felt awful…

She willed herself to open her photoreceptors, squinting as they slowly adjusted to the light.

...Where was she? From what she could see this wasn’t the _Déjà vu_. There was something moist sitting on her head and resting around her shoulders, and it felt like _heaven_ to her overheated body.

Turning her head, she rubbed the sleepiness out of her eyes, the wet thing – which turned out to be a towel – slipping off her head. Even though her vision was blurry, she could make out a distinct dark figure, large and somewhat foreboding. Was it… a steambot?

It was.

And they were big, frightening, and very cross-looking.

Their optics widened as they made eye contact with her, and let out a loud, drawn-out “MMMMMMPH!”

Piper was scared out of her wits; she bolted out of the bed that she was so gingerly tucked into and backed into the wall so quickly and forcefully that a jolt of pain swept through her system. “Wh—wh—what the h—hell kinda coggarn—”

“Ah, sleeping beauty awakes!” exclaimed a familiar voice, the floor clattering as a wheeled 'bot entered the room. Piper, confused and very disoriented, frantically looked back and forth between the two other ‘bots, her entire body trembling with fear and fatigue.

She… She knew this wheeled ‘bot. Taps, that’s it. Why was her memory so fuzzy?

Taps frowned, inching closer to Piper, her hands cautiously raised. “Captain, you okay? You didn’t forget good ol’ Taps, did ya?”

Steam slipped anxiously out of the captain’s face vents as she shook her head “no”. She dared a look at the big steambot sitting against the wall, slowly creeping away from them. Seeing her fear, Taps quickly made to reassure her.

“Easy, Captain, Jorgen’s a regular of mine; he’s not going to hurt you if that’s what you’re thinking...”

Piper stared at her as she took in the info, and Taps could swear she saw the moment the situation clicked within her, the ferocity in her eyes fading, tense expression softening as she looked to the floor, arms folding across her chest. Piper slid down to the floor, her frenetic breathing slowing to a more desirable pace. Taps decided to give her a moment of silence so she could soak everything in.

“I’m… at your bar?”

“Yup. In one of the rooms reserved for passed-out drunks without available transport, to be exact. You weren’t intoxicated or anything, though.”

“...Then what happened?”

“I was going to ask you,” Taps said. “You stumbled in here with a bunch of bullet holes, leaking like crazy. You fainted and we called in a repairbot to patch you up; and he was quick with it too. You’ve only been out for an hour at the most.”

After hearing this Piper inspected herself, noticing a buffed patch in her leg. It wasn’t its usual dark yellow color, instead bearing the shiny, silvery gleam of unpainted metal. “...Oh.”

“He said you need to take better care of yourself. Your joints were filthy and you had a nasty mineral buildup in your boiler,” Taps added.

“Is that why I have a gross taste in my mouth?” Piper asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, we had to give you a descaling agent, sorry. It should go away soon enough.” Taps grabbed the wet towels that had fallen off of Piper in her bout of panic. “You're overheating too. The repairbot said you had started to run overtime after you lost so much fluid and just kinda had your system overloaded with steam. We were able to hydrate you and bring the steam levels down, but you’re still burning up.”

Yes, Piper felt very hot and she _hated it_. It only added on to the discomfort radiating through her body, from aches and pains to shaky joints to the fact that Taps had gotten uncomfortably close to her to place the cool towel around her neck. While the cold cloth had definitely brought on a degree of relief, Piper didn’t like being fawned over like this. She was the captain of a swashbuckling crew; she was more than able to take care of herself. Now she had been rendered helpless, writhing on the floor in pain as a coggin’ barbot took care of her.

After checking Piper’s temperature by placing a thumb on her forehead – much to Piper’s chagrin – Taps pulled away with a worried frown, putting a hand on her hip. “I probably should’ve given you some coolant earlier. Here,” Taps said, grabbing a jar of suspicious-looking liquid from her torso that doubled as a drink holder.

Piper shuddered; she knew what was coming. Coolant did wonders for an overheated ‘bot, but they had to get through the discomfort of being hot and cold _at the same time_ before it started to take effect. It wasn’t fun; Piper could say that much.

She reluctantly reached for her back and opened a small panel. Underneath was a tube which led into her hydraulic pump; the coolant would flow through her system that way and get flushed out later. She braced herself as Taps rolled behind her and dumped the bottle into the tube.

The chilliness hit her like a stampede of steamcows, and Piper fought to restrain herself from flinching, wrapping her arms tightly around herself.

“All done,” said Taps, shutting the panel. “Sorry, I know it doesn’t feel good.”

Piper didn’t feel like responding properly, letting out a moan as her body convulsed with shivers.

“...Captain? …Captain? Piper! Taps to Captain Piper!”

“Owwwwww! Can—can you not, my head hurts...”

“Geez, sorry. Just making sure you’re still alive.”

“Hmmph.” Piper glanced grumpily up at Taps as she carefully stood up, using the wall to support herself as she staggered back to the bed. She flopped into it with a groan, pulling the blankets tightly around herself and shivering a little more.

“...You feeling okay?” Taps asked.

Piper took on what could only be described as an incredulous expression. “You’re only asking me _now_?” she said, shaking her head. “Everything hurts...”

“Everything?”

“Everything.”

“...I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, you were messed up something bad,” said Taps. “The repairbot orders a full twenty-four hours of bedrest before you can get up and moving again. But...”

“But what?”

Taps hesitated for a minute, before continuing, “Do you know what you’re going to do next? You’re not going to head out all by yourself, are you?”

Piper felt a concoction of dread and concern after hearing the worried undertone in Taps' voice. “What do you mean?”

“Your crew’s missing is what I mean.”

Her optics grew as wide as saucers. “Missing?!” She struggled to get up, gasping in pain—when all of the events that had occurred the night before suddenly came flooding back to her, hitting her like a tidal wave.

 _They were taken by the Scrappers. And she had failed to save them_.

“Oh cog, they were kidnapped! I gotta go, I—” her panicked words were interrupted by an intense pain blooming through her body, forcing her down into bed again.

“Whoah, Captain, easy! I hate to tell you this, but you can’t go after them right now, not in your—”

Something in Piper snapped, and Taps could see it clear as day. “Are you crazy?! The Scrappers took them! I have to save them, before they’re scrapped for their parts or—”

“You can’t do it now, Captain, you need to stay and—”

“ _I don’t want to lose my family again!_ ” Piper all but practically screeched, throwing the bottom of her fist into the wall behind her. To Taps’ surprise, she left quite a noticeable dent. Panting from her outburst, she lowered her arm, shoulders starting to tremble slightly. “I—I can’t lose them, not again...”

“...Your family.” It wasn’t a question, rather, a restatement of what she said, as Taps took in the surprising info. “You see them as family.”

“ _How can I not?_ ” Piper said, embarrassed at how her voice pathetically cracked as she spoke. “They’re all I’ve got, I… I can’t imagine living on without them. _I love them_.”

Taps nodded. “And you don’t want to lose them... _again_?”

She remained silent, obviously hesitant to elaborate on this matter. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” Taps assured her. “Just remember… sometimes it helps to have a listening ear.”

Piper looked at Taps, sighed, and said, “It happened a while back, before that big spectacle with the Red Queen and Vectron. Lost half of my crew to the Scrappers.”

“...Captain, that’s _terrible_. How come I’m only hearing this now? Have you talked to _anyone_ about it?”

Piper shrugged in a sluggish manner. “I don’t know… I guess I had other problems to deal with at the time. And I haven’t told anybody about it since. Seabrass and Wonky are the only ones who know about it. I have to admit…” She paused to force down a sob. “It feels nice… to finally get that off my chest.”

Her attempt to hide her sobbing did not go unnoticed, neither did the way her entire body shook like a leaf. Taps sighed heavily, setting a hand on the captain’s shoulder. “...It’s hard for me to find the right words to say… I guess, all I can say is… It’s all over and done with now. You rebuilt your crew from the ground up, and then you proceeded to save _the entire steambot race_. You will get your crew back this time, Captain. That I can say with confidence.”

“Thank you Taps, for believing in me...”

Taps put on a quirky grin. “Hey, I’m not the only one. Make sure you thank your crew when you find them.”

Piper nodded, closing her eyes and laying back on the pillow. Her body was still shivering; she looked like she might break down crying at any moment…

“You okay Captain?”

She shook her head, waving it off. “I—I’ll be fine. I just need some rest.”

“...You _sure_.”

“Yes, I’m sure. Don’t you have a bar to run?”

“Haha! Stubborn as ever, Captain. Glad to see you still have it in ya. If you need anything, just yell; we’ll be here,” Taps said as she turned to leave. But then she stopped herself like she had forgotten something, going back to Piper. “Oh, I held on to this for you. Figured you’d want it back at some point,” she said, pulling out Piper’s hat and offering it to her.

For the first since since entering the bar, a smile crept its way onto Piper’s face, and it was a true, genuinely happy smile. “Thanks,” she said, gladly taking it as she pulled the blankets higher over herself.

Seeing that her job was finished for the time being, Taps snuffed out the lantern on the nearby nightstand and rolled to the door, motioning for Jorgen to come along with her. “C’mon, let’s give her some privacy.” Jorgen was quick to follow, and she shut the door behind them, letting out a sigh of relief. “...Well that went better than I thought it would. Guess I should know better; I’ve never met someone as stoic as Piper Faraday,” she said to Jorgen, who grunted in agreement.

Little did the two of them know, in the darkness of the room, Piper had her hat clutched to her chest, unable to stop the tears rolling down her face.

* * *

By the time of the next rush hour – eight hours later, to be exact – Piper had found out, much to her annoyance, that the walls weren’t soundproof. The chatter of the many steambots crowding the bar leaked into her room, words bouncing noisily off the walls. She couldn’t sleep in such a loud environment; not even her crew’s snoring reached these levels of volume.

Which was unfortunate, because she felt awfully cozy in this bed and was still tired enough for another nap.

Piper flinched at the sudden noise of the door opening, the talking becoming much louder and more unbearable. Her body didn’t like the sharp movement and protested with another bout of pain. Groaning miserably, she opened her eyes to see… absolutely no one in the doorway.

_Figures. They come in to check on me and don’t even bother to—_

Jorgen’s large form appeared in the doorway, blocking out the bright light coming in and casting a long shadow into the room. He walked in, closed the door, and went to light the lantern, mumbling in his odd little grunts for her to sit up—which she did, only very slowly and painstakingly. A chilled bottle of water was placed in Piper’s clamps, and Jorgen eagerly pointed to his mouth, grunting in a bossy way.

“Alright, I got it,” Piper said as she opened the bottle, resisting the urge to smile. She had to admit, his concern for her was pretty amusing.

As the cool water slipped into her mouth, she realized just how thirsty she was and ended up downing the entire bottle. Her boiler must have been more empty than she thought it was…

While she was drinking, Jorgen pressed a finger to her forehead to check her temperature, and had withdrawn it with what seemed like a grunt of satisfaction. Piper did notice at that moment that she didn’t feel that feverish anymore; a more normal, comfortable warmth flowing through her pipes. What a relief…

After emptying the bottle she handed it back to Jorgen, who grunted as he took it. He went on to ask her how she was feeling.

“Mmph?”

“I still kinda ache all over. And I’m tired...”

“Mmmph.”

“It’s too noisy; I don’t think I can sleep like this.”

“Hmmmph!”

“Like what?”

“Hm-mph!”

“You got books here? I thought this was a bar, not a library.”

“Mmph.”

“I don’t want to anyway. It’s okay, I’ll just wait out the rush hour.”

Jorgen shook his head, got up and strode out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him. He actually left so quickly, Piper had to take a minute to process what happened. Seems like he didn’t like her backtalk…

Piper only shrugged and reached under the covers, searching for her hat. Once she felt it she pulled it out and brought it into the light, carefully tracing the emblazoned emblem with her finger. Looking over the cap, she saw little tears and discolorations in the fabric that she never really paid any attention to before…

She remembered the day she got this hat. She had just traded her ship full of prisoners for the _Déjà vu_ , and decided to leave her job working under the Royalists after discovering that they wanted her to transport those prisoners to the work camps. Thanks to her quick thinking, they wouldn’t have to suffer such a tedious fate.

Piper wanted a fresh start. With the little extra spending gallons she had, she paid a tailor to make her a brand new hat—one that expressed her position as captain.

Every little nick and scratch on the hat was earned… with her crew around her.

Was she really deserving of the title of “Captain?” After failing to save her crew, her flesh and blood, twice?

Did she merit a crew so loyal that she couldn’t reciprocate that fidelity?

With a stressed yell she threw her hat to the floor, the cap flopping about uselessly like a fish out of water before going still. Piper brought her knees up to her chest, trembling.

She knew that those questions were tempting her to draw out the dark lies that she didn’t want to believe from the back of her mind. Yet, after what had happened earlier… she couldn’t help but doubt everything about herself.

...Piper missed her crew. She missed them so, so much...

* * *

Aboard a Scrapper escort ship, Piper’s crew could be found, long having given up fighting against their bonds. It was cold, dark and fearful; they only had the light of each others’ furnaces to go by as they huddled close together to share body heat.

“Where do y’all think they’re takin’ us?” Sally had said at some point.

“Probably some scrap heap where they’ll use us for our parts,” Dora replied.

“Gyaargh,” moaned Seabrass, “Not if I ‘ave anything to do about it!”

“I’m with Seabrass on this one; I’m going to fight until it kills me,” Beatrix said.

“Blub?”

“Fishbot is right, what is wrong with Fen?” Ivanski asked. Fen was shaking like a branch in the breeze, lights on their body blinking in a frantic, disorderly manner.

“I can’t go back there, please don’t let them take me again!” they pleaded, curling in on themself in fear.

Wonky, the one who was presently the closest to Fen, was fast to comfort them. “Hey, mate, it’s all right. There’s no telling what’s going to happen, but I’m sure we’re going to make it out of this together,” he said.

“How can you be sure?” questioned Payroll.

“In all my years as a pilot, I have not met a group of bots that cooperate with each other as well as you lot. I have confidence that you will fight and win.”

Valentine was next to voice his concerns, “But how will we get out?”

“Piper will come for us, I know it,” said Fen.

Wonky nodded. “She definitely will, friend. She cares about us too much to just leave us behind.”

For a moment there was silence among the crew, because no one could object to _that_.

“I hope she’s doing okay without us. This must be hitting her pretty hard.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hhhhnng EMOTIONS ARE HARD YO


	3. Truth Hurts

After the rush hour had passed – it, annoyingly, lasted much longer than an hour – and things calmed down a bit, Piper managed to muster up enough energy to come out of her room and sit at the bar. She didn’t bother with any strong drinks, however, opting to stick with water while she took the time to recover. Not that she was a heavy drinker to begin with; in fact, she tried to avoid alcohol at all costs. As a captain, it was her responsibility to keep a level head.

“How are you feeling, Captain?” Taps had eventually asked her. “Remember anything?”

Piper idly traced the rim of her glass with her claws. “Could be better,” she said off-handedly, “My crew got kidnapped.”

“You said that earlier, yeah… By the Scrappers?”

“That’s right.” Piper switched from tracing over the rim of the glass to tapping the side of it without any particular rhythm in mind. “I had tried to get my gun to deal with them, but they shot me before I could. I remember one of them saying ‘We got what we came for, let’s get out of here’ or something like that. I was too weak to pursue, so they escaped… with all of my crew.”

“...And then you came here,” Taps finished for her.

“Yeah,” Piper said with a small nod.

“You made a good decision, Captain, it’s wouldn’t be wise to chase after them in the condition you were in.”

“Mhmm,” she sighed, folding her arms, placing them on the bar and resting her head sideways on them.

Taps watched her little display of misery in slight amusement and said, “You okay, Captain?”

“I’m all right…”

“You don’t look all right.”

“I’m fine, really!”

“Whatever you say.”

Just then a customer a little ways down the bar called for Taps’ attention, and so the bartender let Piper wallow in her misery while she went to take the order.

Piper didn’t look any better when she came back. “I already have my sources looking into what happened,” Taps tried to console her. “Some of them took a bit of persuasion, but rest assured, they’ll find out where your crew went.”

Piper lifted her head at this, placing a hand on her cheek. “I sure hope so,” she said, that sad, sad expression remaining plastered to her face.

“Hope is a dangerous thing, lady!” yelled a guy from the other end of the bar.

Taps turned to him and shouted, “Shut up Tony, she’s had a rough day!”

“No, he’s right, it is… But it’s all I’m holding onto at this point,” Piper admitted with a sad smile.

“You hold onto it like it’s your life, Captain, don’t let anything take it from you.”

“Thanks, Taps… for everything.”

“Anytime, Captain.”

Taps left again for a minute to take care of another order, and when she came back this time, Piper’s head was tilted forward, eyes half-lidded in obvious fatigue. She hadn’t gotten any sleep since the crowds came in hours ago, and combined with the fact that she was tired to begin with, Piper had been _exhausted_ of what little energy she had.

“...You might want to get some rest; you’re nodding off,” said Taps.

“Okay.” Piper was too tired to argue with her; besides, it had gotten quiet enough that she’d finally be able to go to sleep. With a little moan, she got up from the stool and downed the rest of her water, leaving the empty glass on the bar. She walked stiffly back to the room she’d been banished to for the past… nineteen hours, if she’d been counting correctly. Cog, she couldn’t _wait_ to get out of here.

When she shut the door, her eyes happened to fall upon her hat again, the cap sitting forlornly on the floor.

She went over to it and fished it up into her hands, gently stroking the fabric, the questions that had tormented her earlier coming back to haunt her.

_Was she worthy?_

* * *

Piper had woken up to loud noises again. But this time, it wasn’t the noisy clamor of rush-hour crowds, rather, it was a sudden series of piercing screams, and heavy footsteps pounding across the bar floor. It ended with a loud _bang_ that made Piper wince.

She flew out of bed with much more vigor than before – much to her pleasant surprise – and cracked open the door—

There was a Scrapper on the floor, Taps, Jorgen and an unfamiliar steambot hovering over them.

“All right, where are they?!” Taps yelled at them.

“I ain’t tellin’ you nuthin’!”

Piper knew that voice. The one that said _“We got what we came for, let’s get out of here.”_

In that moment, she was filled with fury, a familiar hatred towards the Scrappers making itself at home in her once again.

“We have ways of making you talk. You better speak up or you’ll regret it,” Taps continued, crossly folding her arms across her chest. The Scrapper didn’t seem intimidated by her one bit, and kept his jaw locked shut. Taps looked at Jorgen and nodded to him, and he produced a fluffy feather duster from behind his back, encroaching threateningly upon the Scrapper.

A blur of yellow and red tackled the Scrapper, making the rest of the ‘bots collectively flinch in surprise.

Piper had pinned the Scrapper to the floor. She looked _furious_.

“Where are they?!” she screamed in his face, the Scrapper shivering underneath her. He fearfully opened his eyes, which widened in recognition as they took in her face.

He started giggling, throwing Piper off. “Oooh, _here comes the Captain, tryin’ to come to the rescue!_ Hahaha, don’t worry, they’re bein’ hauled off to the nearest scrap heap—”

“Tell me where they are or _I’ll rip your arms off!_ ” Piper yelled, putting more pressure on the Scrapper. The other ‘bots, Taps especially, were shocked. Piper wasn’t one to threaten _anybody_ with violence to get info out of them, and if she did, she was being sarcastic. But not this time; they could tell, by the pure _rage_ in her eyes, the venom laced through every word she spat, the way her arms trembled as she pushed down on the Scrapper—this was no empty threat. She was deathly serious.

“Captain, wait!” Taps said, “Please, think about this—”

“ _Where are they, you little piece of scrap?!_ ” Piper was shrieking at him now, body shaking with so much _anger_ that she was actually _crying_. But the Scrapper was too scared by her outburst to notice and finally caved.

“All right! They’re bein’ taken to Warehouse 5, but it’s not just labeled like that. Only me an’ my cuz’ns know which one it is. Now please, don’t hurt me—” The words were practically tumbling out of his mouth, so quickly that Piper almost couldn’t understand. But she had heard enough. Enough for her to stare him down for a hot minute, as if testing him, to make sure the info he spewed wasn’t a lie.

But he didn’t budge.

Piper pushed off of him and moved to the other end of the room, furiously wiping away the hot tears streaming down her face.

“Captain, are you okay?” she heard Taps say from behind her, the rattle of her wheel quickly approaching. Piper whipped around, wanting to snap back at her, but couldn’t quite find the words to say. She was left awkwardly holding her arm up in the air for a good minute before she finally said something.

“I’m not okay,” she admitted, looking off to the side with a shamed expression. “I’m not okay, my crew’s not okay, I just—this whole thing happened just because I wasn’t quick enough!”

She only took a second to catch her breath, and then added, “I’m leaving.”

To say Taps was shocked by her split-second decision was an understatement. “Now?! But Captain, are you—”

“I’m feeling fine!” Piper ensured her, as if able to read her mind. “I’m not wasting another second here; if I want to catch up I need to leave now.” She went back into her room and came back out with her cap in its rightful place upon her red head. After checking herself over and adjusting a few things, she grabbed the Scrapper – who has since been tied up by Jorgen – by the scruff of his neck, dragging him onto her ship. In the doorway she paused, glancing back at Taps.

“How could I ever thank you enough, Taps… I’ll repay you one day, I swear!”

“You can repay me by being careful!” Taps snapped at her, right as the doors slid shut. “She’s gonna let her anger blind her and get her in trouble, I know it,” she sighed, crossing her arms. She started wheeling back to the bar in order to get it ready for the morning crowds, when a thought popped into her head that made her _screech_ to a stop. “Oh _scrap!_ The repairbot said not to let her leave; that he needed to do something else with her.”

“Mmph?” Jorgen grunted inquisitively, going ahead of her and sitting on a stool.

Taps shook her head, “He didn’t say. All he told me is that he needed some tools he didn’t have with him. Whatever it is, I hope it isn’t too serious...”

* * *

The crew had been held on the Scrapper ship for much longer than any of them anticipated. Beside the fact that they were starting to feel claustrophobic, their being abruptly woken in the middle of the night had gotten to some of them, leading to sleepy heads lying on shoulders (Much to the annoyance of those who refused to doze off). Somewhere in the midst of it they made a rendezvous with another, smaller ship. The crew couldn’t hear much from where they were and all that they could get out of it was that some of the Scrappers were needed elsewhere. That ship left after a few minutes and they shoved off again.

Finally, after what felt like hours, the ship came to a halt and docked at a larger vessel.

The sleepyheads were poked awake, and the Scrappers carried the tired crew into a cell that felt just as tight, if not tighter than their previous location. It was drab and quite dirty as well—but at least this time they found relief in the form of the Scrappers removing the ropes that rendered them immobile.

The cell was barred closed, and a larger Scrapper that seemed to be the leader of the lot paced in front of them, a heavy-looking rifle clutched in his claws.

“All right, I’m only gonna ask this once,” he said with narrowed eyes. “Which one of y’all gave Ma her techromancing prowess?”

They all knew the answer. They did not want to answer. They looked to the walls, the floor—to anywhere but Fen, to direct all suspicion away from them.

Fen – like the rest of the crew – remained silent. If they answered, told the truth, they were as well as dead.

_Or were they?_

_What would Captain do in this situation?_ Fen thought to themself. In any circumstances, she wanted her crew to be honest, but if doing so compromised them, she’d allow them to lie…

Maybe this time… It’d be worth it to be truthful in this situation. Their lives were being threatened here, but if Fen went, the rest would survive… probably. They’d at least try to escape; they had started talking about it in the transfer ship.

Fen decided: they would go. And when the Scrappers least expected it, they would fight back.

They stepped forward, straightening as much as their naturally hunched posture allowed them to. “I did,” said Fen. “Her son ripped out my core, which gave her the powers to raise the broken parts.” They shuddered at the memory, the sickening feeling of Jester’s cold claws digging into their back still fresh in their mind.

All at once there were objections from the rest of the crew; they begged for Fen not to go, they didn’t want to lose another friend.

Fen turned their head, expression seemingly unreadable. “I’ll be okay… You guys go on without me.” _And I’ll join you soon_ , they wanted to add, but they didn’t want to reveal their plan to the Scrappers.

The bigger Scrapper opened the cell door and gestured for Fen to come forward. Head held high, they marched out of the cell and was promptly handcuffed. They didn’t fight against the Scrapper ‘bot-handling them, nor did they resist being lead down the dark and stuffy hallways.

The bigger Scrapper closed the cell door and laughed so hard that he couldn’t catch his breath. “Hahaha! Yer friend’s a naive one. They thought we’d be lettin’ y’all go. Well newsflash: yer not goin’ anywhere. Y’all will serve to be good parts to be used in the new zombot army.” He set his gun so that it was standing up on its handle, holding the barrel in the crook of his folded arms. “Don’t get too cozy, ya hear? We’ll be right back. We’re about to witness the rise of the new generation of Scrappers.”

With another annoying chuckle, the Scrapper slung his rifle over his back and waltzed down the same hall Fen was taken, the remaining Scrapper minions following suit.

The crew was silent but patient as they carefully listened to the Scrappers’ fading footsteps. It was only when the echo of a door slamming shut reached their cell did they find the courage to speak.

“Scrappers treat Fen badly; Ivanski hopes they will be okay.”

“They were so brave,” Payroll pointed out. “I haven’t really seen them like that before.”

“You’re right. I wonder what got into Fen to make them confess like that,” Valentine wondered aloud.

“It’s hard to say… maybe, just maybe, they did it because it would be what Captain Piper would want them to do?” said Beatrix.

Wonky shrugged, yet the ghost of a doubtful look was on his face. “Would Piper really want Fen to sacrifice themselves to let the rest of the crew live? Frankly… I don’t think so.” He shook his head. “She wouldn’t leave anyone behind. She would fight to the death before she let someone sacrifice themselves like that.”

Seabrass opened his mouth to retort, but he couldn’t really argue with that. Wonky was right. “Gyraarh, ye be right. Cap’n’s grown awfully protective.”

“Not that that’s an entirely bad thing, as long as you don’t let it get too extreme,” Wonky said. “Anyway, Ms. Adventura, I want you to do me a favor...”

“Yes?” Dora piped up, excited at the prospect that she could do something other than pace the cramped cell like a madbot.

“How confident are you in your repair skills? Say you had to rebuild a ‘bot. Would you be able to decently assemble them?”

Dora poked her chin as she mulled over the question. “I’m not the best, but I’m definitely capable of it. But if you’re talking about Fen...”

“I’m not,” Wonky assured. “With any luck, they won’t require any repairs. I have a plan...”

* * *

Steam clouded the ceiling as Piper floundered about the _Déjà vu_ , the agitated captain wracking her brain as she tried to remember how this dang ship ran. Fire up the furnace, open the steam valves, check air pressure… How ever did Wonky keep everything running optimal all by himself?!

The Scrapper’s laughter bounced off the walls and irritated her to no end; he was clearly amused by her distress. By the time she finally got the ship ready to go, she had to physically let her anger out by delivering a non-lethal slap to the face. Her steam was still boiling, however.

Piper lifted the Scrapper up by the ropes and pulled him to her desk, every inch of which was covered with maps of the Outskirts. She raised him so that he could see the pages clearly, then demanded in a loud voice to tell her where the warehouse was. Piper pressed the muzzle of her gun against his temple to further put the pressure on him.

Unfortunately, he seemed indifferent to the fact that a hyper futuristic rifle literally buzzing with power was held up to his head. “Go ahead and shoot me,” he said. “I’m already dead as it is.”

Piper narrowed her optics. “Not yet, you aren’t. I can shoot you in a way that won’t send your parts flying all over the place. Did I mention I know how to reassemble ‘bots? If that so happens I can just put you back together and repeat the—”

“All right!” the scrapper interrupted, a frantic look in his eyes. “It’s—it’s over,” he tried to stretch his legs out as much as he could in his bonds, “It’s over here.” He planted his foot in a rather empty place on the chart. “Of course, the ships are moved around every once ‘n a while so it could’ve relocated since then.”

“Hmph.” Piper put her hand on her hip, jerking the Scrapper up from the table. “You better not be lying, you know. I can do much more painful things to you.” Piper was bluffing a bit, but she wasn’t going to admit that. She just wanted to make sure the Scrapper wasn’t tricking her… that, and she wanted to see his reaction. She wasn’t disappointed.

“NNNNNGAAGH! Puh—puh—please, just—just stop talkin’ about it, I’ll cooperate, I promise!” he pleaded, kicking his feet about uselessly in the air. Piper had to hold in her laughter at the ridiculous sight.

Eventually she yanked him up again, earning a surprised yelp. She carried him over to a support pole a little ways away from the controls. Had one stood in front of it, they would have a perfect view of whatever was out the front window.

Piper undid the ropes and tied them around the pole, effectively securing the Scrapper to it. She dusted off her hands – being sure to make a show of it – before going to the controls, ready to shove off.

...How does she start the ship again? Perhaps she has to press that button over there. It’s big and red; it’s practically begging for her to push it—

Bad idea. A hatch attached to a pipe running along the wall just opened and now there’s soot wafting everywhere.

The Scrapper started giggling _again_ as Piper fanned the smoke away, coughing out the small but nonetheless bothersome amount that somehow made it into her bellows. _I’ll have to ask Valentine to clean this out for me later_ , she noted. With a final, shuddering cough, she closed up the hatch and grabbed a towel to clean herself. She did her best to ignore the Scrapper laughing at her expense and returned to the controls. However, she did make sure to vent a large plume of steam as she passed him by. It shut him up, much to her relief.

This time, an especially glaring lever stood out to her. It had a nice, shiny handle, so polished that she could see her reflection in it. She firmly grasped it and pushed it forward, and with a jerky start, the ship lurched onward. The fiery roar of the rocket reached Piper’s auditors, and brought out a smile from her. “I’m comin’, fellas. Hang in there,” she whispered to nobody in particular.

It was mostly to herself, if she was being honest…

* * *

“ _You let her leave?!_ ” the repairbot exclaimed, furiously tossing a tool back into his kit. He slammed it shut with a sickening _snap_ , causing the unusually anxious Taps to flinch.

“I know, I’m sorry, I messed up...”

“No scrap you did! That lady’s in danger!” he yelled, stomping down his foot.

“Okay, but how?” said Taps. “What kind of danger is the captain in that required you to disappear for nearly an entire day? Just what kind of ‘tools’ did you need to get?” Taps asked in an almost condescending tone.

“I didn’t need just my smaller tools; I also needed a specific replacement gear.”

Taps immediately regretted asking in such a rude manner, a terrible feeling of dread descending upon her.

“One of those bullets managed to hit a gear clackin’ away in her engine. Her _steam heart,_ ” he said, pointing to his chest to add emphasis. “That gear’s all cracked and brittle now; if somethin’ hits her hard enough for that gear to break? Her heart will get jammed up, preventing steam from gettin’ to where it needs to be. She’ll be paralyzed, she’ll overheat, her brain’ll shut down from the lack of steam and then she’ll die!”

“Scrap!” was all Taps could say. She messed up _horribly_ and now both she and Piper were going to pay the price. If Piper died and the bar heard that it was the bartender’s fault…

Better not think about the bad things that could happen to her bar when instead she could be thinking about how to clean up after herself.

“All right, we’ve got to get you to the captain before it’s too late,” Taps said. She turned to a ‘bot sitting at the bar. “Lucy, do you think you can track Piper down and get Mr. Armstrong to her?”

The steambot, Lucy, pulled down a pair of shades over her eyes, flashing a half-grin. “Leave it to me. Come with me, sir!” she said, sliding off the stool.

The repairbot hefted his heavy kit up into his arms, following Lucy into the medical ship he arrived on. Before the door closed, however, he looked back at Taps with a stern frown, delivering her a chilling final message.

“You better hope she survives. If not, your bar’s gonna hear about this.”

 _That’s exactly what I’m afraid of_ , Taps thought as the door close, shielding her from his scary face. He was one lean, mean steambot, and frankly, she was glad he was out of her bar. The mood in the air lightened a little bit with his absence.

...All she could do now was hope and pray that things would turn out well in due time.


	4. Out of Tune

“I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that you had legs this entire time...”

“How did you think I got around before becoming a pilot?”

“I don’t know, a wheelchair?”

“That’s beside the point now. Help me up, let’s see how well you did.”

Dora offered her arm to help Wonky up on his newly-rebuilt feet. His legs wobbled a bit but he found his balance fairly quickly. When Wonky revealed that his pilot chair – which, back in the _Déjà vu_ , was attached to the ceiling – had legs built into them…

The crew’s reactions were nothing short of priceless, Seabrass’s especially. His whole lower jaw unhinged itself and clattered to the floor, leading to his flustered crewmates struggling to screw it back on.

Now with his legs rebuilt, Wonky took a moment to test them out, bending his knees and kicking his feet. “You did well, Dora. Thank you.”

“It—it’s nothing, really...” she said, looking quite a bit bashful.

It was only then that Wonky noticed that the entire crew was staring at him… everyone. Every. Single. Eye. On. Him. He suddenly felt very, very uncomfortable.

“...What?”

A long, awkward moment passed by before Seabrass blurted out, “Gyarrh, it doesn’t look right!”

“...That’s… because you’re not used to seeing me with legs, I guess.” He shrugged with all four of his arms. “All right, now’s a good time to put our plan in motion. Billy, is there anyone out there?”

The aforementioned ‘bot peeked into the halls for any Scrappers that might be loitering around. After doing so he turned back around and shook his head “no”, uttering a very brief “Blub”.

“Okay then. Ivanski, if you would,” said Wonky, gesturing to the bars of the cell.

Ivanski strutted up to them and stuck both of his hands between two bars. Slowly he started to push on them, trying to form a sizable gap between the bars so that they could squeeze through.

To his surprise, the bars actually split into pieces. And he wasn’t even applying that much pressure! He tried pulling on another bar, and sure enough, that one also snapped like a twig without him doing too much effort.

“They should invest in some stronger metal,” Payroll commented. “Not that _they’re_ going to listen to reason.” The crew could only agree; the Scrappers were a bunch of idiots that didn’t seem to let anything through their thick skulls.

Ivanski made quick work of a few more bars, creating a clear doorway for the crew to go through. “This looks good,” he said, donning a proud smile.

“Yeehaw, let’s go get them varmints!” Sally hollered, pumping her fist in the air. She was the first to run out of the cell, the others quickly filtering out behind her—that is, everyone except for Valentine and Wonky. Wonky was waiting for Valentine to leave so he could follow behind everyone, but the old ‘bot wasn’t as eager to go as Wonky expected him to...

“Something isn’t right, I can feel it in my knees,” he said.

“Well, if there is a problem, I’m sure it’s nothing that our crew can’t handle, don’t you think so Mr. Butterbolt?”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” he said with a nod. “Alrighty then, let’s go!”

The two of them went out to regroup with the others, and together they ran down the same hallway that Fen was taken. At the end of it they found a locked door, which was easily taken down with some physical abuse. However, they weren’t expecting what they found beyond it…

“What—what happened here...?”

* * *

As expected, the warehouse wasn’t in the spot the Scrapper said it would be. Piper wanted to shoot him in the face at the time of that discovery, but if she did, she would lose the only lead she had. So she had to ignore the protests of her itchy trigger finger for now and instead continue on her search.

With a sigh, Piper crossed another area on the star charts off. She has combed through at least half of Scrapper territory by now, and yet, the warehouse was nowhere to be found. She’s been searching for—fifteen hours straight? Coggarn it. Long enough for her to lose track of time, at least. She was starting to grow tired. Not that she was going to admit it with the Scrapper around.

Piper moved the papers around on the table. “You sure we didn’t pass it by or something?” she asked.

“It’s four stories high; ya can’t miss it,” said the Scrapper.

“Dang.” Piper pulled out a rather dusty chart from the drawer and scrutinized it. “So, uh… Now that Chop Sue’s not around to raise those parts into zombots anymore what do you do with the junk you get? Do you just let it sit around?”

“Yeah. No other choice, really. But sometimes we come across other steambots lookin’ for scraps that pay us for it. Not sure why they want it, but at least it keeps the water n’ oil flowin’.”

Piper had a hard time taking that fact in. For what good reason did a steambot need parts of dead steambots?! As far as she knew, dead parts still contained some element of connection to a person. Their soul, for lack of better words. Interlapping souls with each other only proved to be detrimental so far, Scrappers being the paramount example.

She had so many questions she wanted to ask, but considering the fact that this Scrapper seemed just as confused as she was… all she could say about it was “Yeesh.”

Piper looked over the maps on the desk again, yet her tired brain couldn’t make sense of anything at the moment. Maybe she should—

“Can we take a break and continue tomorrow? I’m tired. My optics hurt.”

Great. So he was a whiner, too. _I shouldn’t be surprised_ , Piper thought. But at least she wasn’t the one to bring the idea of sleep up…

She was too drained to berate him, so she pulled herself out of her seat and stretched her arms in the air, working out the knots in her back. “I’ll find an asteroid to anchor on,” she said, trudging over to the wheel.

The outskirts were filled with space rocks, so it didn’t take her too long to find one. The difficult part was lining up the ship just right so that the anchor would hit it. It took Piper a few more tries than she’d care to admit. When she finally landed the anchor in place, it was sloppy. But it was going to hold the ship in place, so she wasn’t going to beat herself up about it.

With that done, she turned out the lights by the control board and turned to the Scrapper. “I have a few more things to do but you can go to sleep. I’ll be waking you up early, so be prepared,” she told him.

He scoffed and said in a mocking tone, “Aye-aye, Captain.”

Piper only shook her head and proceeded with the chores she had to do. With the crew not around, it was her responsibility to make sure everything was running in tip-top condition.

She made a few rounds around the _Déjà vu_ , keeping an eye out for rust or otherwise any worrying damage that would cause harm if not taken care of. Thankfully, nothing seemed to be broken or out of place. Next she turned off the rockets, snuffed the furnace, shut the steam valves and undid everything she did to get the ship running earlier that day.

After that, Piper climbed up the nearest ladder and located Earnest sitting on the windowsill. The poor plant had been sitting in the sun much longer than what was probably healthy for it; she should move it into some shade and give it a drink. She carefully scooped up the pot and retrieved Wonky’s watering can from his shelf of belongings.

...Scrap, how much water should she give this thing?

Piper gingerly pushed the leaves of the plant around to get its label, turning the paper over to find watering instructions. They weren’t very helpful.

_Water the plant until the soil is moist. Moisture should reach no more than one inch deep. Pooling at the bottom of the pot may indicate overwatering._

With a shrug, she started pouring water around the stems, stopping when the soil grew dark. She stuck her finger an inch deep into the dirt, but it all felt wet. “Well, I hope I didn’t overwater it,” she sighed. “Now to water myself.” Soon enough Earnest was sitting proudly upon Wonky’s shelf, and Piper was descending the ladder to start her bedtime routine.

Down a bottle of water, refill her furnace with coal, check herself in the mirror for any possible damage and go to bed. It should have been simple enough.

Except Piper had dark, ugly black stains under her eyes. Yes, this was something that happened to almost every steambot; cry enough and the paint (or metal) under your eyes gets affected. Nothing that would cause harm in the long run; it just looked hideous and… well, shows what you’ve been through. Did the Scrapper see the stains? If so, why didn’t he bring it up? It seems like a thing he’d pester her about…

It doesn’t matter right now. What matters is that she hides the fact that she’d been crying; to appear strong for her crew. Showing any sign of weakness is the last thing they needed right now…

Piper kept a stash of yellow paint under her bed especially for this occasion. She fished out one of the cans and a brush, went to the mirror and set to work. Yes, she’d be up for a few more hours to let the paint dry, but it needed to be done.

...She didn’t want her crew to see her like this, spiraling and emotional… they shouldn’t have to carry the weight of her own burdens.

* * *

There were piles of Scrapper remains _everywhere_. It was all a grotesque mess of metal limbs and body parts that made the more sensitive members of the crew queasy. Not to mention that the silence was near deafening and filled them with an overwhelming feeling of dread.

“Check your six; I don’t think we’re alone.” Beatrix was born a war soldier and out of all the crew had the most developed sixth sense. When she said something was wrong, something was definitely wrong and so they always took her warnings seriously and proceeded with whatever kind of caution they needed to.

In this case, they dug up some weapons from the Scrapper remains, ranging from pistols to lobbers to assault rifles. Similar in style to the guns they were used to, but cheap, since it was Scrapper property. They would have to make use of what they had for now…

After making sure their guns were loaded, they stood back-to-back to each other, forming a large circle of steambots, looking for potential threats. The tension in the air was so thick that you could cut it with a knife.

Billy looked around with shifty eyes. It was subtle, but he could sense it, too, the looming, yet somewhat familiar presence. It was alien and odd, but still somehow felt... like home, in a way. I was hard to explain and wait a minute is that Fen on the ceiling—

“BLUB!”

The crew heard his warning and looked up, scattering as Fen descended upon them. Fen landed and a puffy cloud of dust erupted around them.

“Ah, Fen! Thank goodness you’re—” Wonky started, but stopped as the dust started to clear and give him a better look at Fen… or, rather, what remained of Fen.

The red scarf Fen was so fond of had been shredded to pieces, leaving only loose scraggly bits hanging around their head. Numerous wires around their body had been split or torn, small sparks occasionally escaping from the insides. The wires hung from their body like a mantle. On top of that, there were large cuts and gashes in their tough metal casing, and the screen that served as their face kept glitching and displaying bizarre symbols.

“Fen, you’re hurt...”

Fen didn’t seem to hear. Their screen glitched more as they spat out garbled static. Their body twitched and shuddered uncontrollably, twisting into odd angles—and then suddenly the screen displayed nothing but blue as they launched themself at Wonky and started clawing at him, screeching out more gibberish.

The better part of the crew descended into panic, yelling out obscenities that Piper wouldn’t approve of. Thankfully Ivanski did some quick thinking and ran over to the scuffle, pushing Fen off of Wonky. Fen was startled and lied on the floor, twitching and sparking.

Sally didn’t hesitate to draw her gun and shoot. “You varmint!”

The bullet hit Fen in the torso and they responded by jumping on all fours, somehow getting into an even more hunched position than they were before. They looked at Sally and _hissed_ at her, the screen displaying broken red digits.

Before Sally could shoot again, Dora bolted over to her and pushed her arm down. “Stop it, you’re hurting them!”

“They’re dangerous!” Sally shot back, wrangling her arm out of the other ‘bot’s grasp. Dora only pulled her arm down again and the two of them tussled like two little kids fighting over a toy. Fen took the moment to escape and made for the door.

However, the girls didn’t notice Fen was gone until Seabrass shouted at them. “Ye idiots!” he yelled, “Ye let them get away!”

“Ah would’ve gotten ‘em if Miss Thinks-She-Knows-Everything here didn’t try to stop me!”

“But you were hurting them!” Dora protested. “They’re our teammate, for cog’s sake! What would the captain say?!”

“Boss isn’t here though!”

“ _That doesn’t matter, you—_ ”

“That’s quite enough!” Wonky said.

Dora and Sally turned to see him being helped up by Payroll, and they were immediately filled with a sense of guilt for not noticing he was hurt. “Oh my gosh, I’m sorry, are you oka—”

“They scratched me a bit, but thankfully they didn’t sever anything.” Wonky got on his feet, crossing all four of his arms. “Ms. Bolt, I know you were only trying to help, but shooting our friend is not the way to do so.”

“But, they’re—”

“I know, they tried to hurt us, which is wildly out of character for them. They don’t seem to be in the right mind...”

“Aye, ye think they be under the influence?” asked Seabrass.

Wonky nodded. “Something like that. Maybe mind control?”

“But we eliminated Vectron,” Dora pointed out. “They shouldn’t be under Vectron’s control…”

“You think the Scrappers did something to them?” Valentine asked.

“I though that was rather obvious with the whole… looking feral kind of thing,” said Beatrix.

“Bluu-uub!”

“Billy’s right, we can’t just stand around here talking about it; we should go after Fen and at least see if there’s any way we can help them,” Wonky said. “Also—do _not_ use your guns. Unless we come across any Scrappers.”

“Dangit!” Sally pouted.

“We don’t want to hurt Fen any more than they already are.”

“If even one cog in the machine is lost, the system is affected greatly. It would do the profit no good.”

For a minute everyone was so astonished by Payroll’s words of wisdom that they were struck speechless. They didn’t expect to hear that out of Payroll; he didn’t seem like the type who would spill out philosophies like that...

“That is... an excellent way to put it, Payroll,” Wonky said.

“Guys… We should go like, now. Before they hurt themselves,” Dora said, nervously fiddling with her grappling hook.

“Yeah. Let’s go.”

As they started to leave, Wonky felt a hand grab his shoulder. He turned to find Sally looking towards the floor, tugging anxiously on one of her pigtails. “Um… Ah jus’ wanted to say… Ah’m sorry for what Ah did back there. Ah realize now it was a foul move on mah part. Ah could’ve killed ‘em!” She looked guiltily to the side, rubbing her arm.

“It’s all right,” Wonky ensured. “I know, it’s hard to think straight in situations like that. Your fight-or-flight response just takes over. It’s in the past now; instead we should worry about what’s happening right now.”

“You’re right!” Sally said, dropping her glum attitude. “Let’s go save our friend.”

“That’s the spirit!”

The two of them joined the others and they set out to find Fen—blissfully unaware of what was soon to transpire.

* * *

Even though Piper went to bed later than usual, she found it hard to fall asleep that night.

Her mind was racing, undesirable thoughts about what might have happened to her crew coming and going and coming back again. She tried to think about other things, heck, she even tried to count sheep—but her thoughts never failed to come back to her team.

...Piper was just so dang _worried_ about them. She couldn’t just stop worrying about them; it was her _job_ to worry about her crew. Worry about who got scrapped on the latest mission, worry about the teammates that are late from coming back from a mission, worry about whatever kind of crazy trouble they’ve gotten themselves into. She was their captain; a captain always takes care of their crew.

And this time, she failed them.

The fact that they were in the hands of her enemy, far from her reach scared the living daylights out of her. All kinds of bad things could have happened to them by now; they could’ve been scrapped for their parts, they could’ve been dumped into space, they might be going through some sort of sick torture right about now—

_No. No no no no no, think positive, happy thoughts… they’re fine. Or at least, they’re going to be._

Piper took a deep breath, desperately trying to suppress the dark thoughts. The worry gripped at her chest like a vice, dread sitting uneasily in her chassis. She pulled her blankets tighter around herself, scrunching her eyes shut as she pressed her face into the pillow.

_Go to sleep. I’ll save them tomorrow and everything will go back to the way things were before… they’ll be fine._

Piper found it difficult to convince herself, but they _had_ to be fine; they just had to.

Because she didn’t think she could live with herself if they weren’t.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That last bit actually wasn’t in my outline. When I finished everything that was planned for this chapter, it turned out a lot shorter than I thought it would be and so I improvised the last bit. So there you go, y’all got some extra angst >:D


	5. One Step Closer

Piper woke up with a miserable moan, rolling over to lie on her belly and flop her face into her pillow. She couldn’t see the clock in her current position, but she didn’t need to to tell that she had woken up much earlier than she needed to. Sure, she planned to get up early today but this was just _ridiculous_. Maybe she could nab a few more minutes of shuteye if she was serious about it…

She pulled up her blankets around her, turning herself into a burrito, and sighed heavily, attempting to relax.

A small pain pinched her in her chest, making her photoreceptors snap open. The pain went away quickly, though, so she didn’t dwell on it and shut her eyes again.

...It hurt again a few minutes later, going away just as quickly. And it kept happening, again and again. Some times it took longer to come back than other times. But it always hurt briefly, and went away like it was never there. And it was damn _annoying_.

Seeing that trying to get any more sleep was a fantasy at this point Piper groaned and threw the covers off of herself, crawling tiredly out of bed and looking at herself in the mirror.

...The paint didn’t come off in her sleep. That was good. Piper then inspected the spot where she kept feeling the pain. She noticed that it was one of the places where she was shot, the buffed metal needing a coat of paint. Maybe she still hasn’t recovered fully. That’s fine; she’ll have more time to rest when it’s all said and done.

She refilled her boiler, grabbed her rifle and climbed up a ladder, walking over to where the Scrapper was tied up and sleeping, his head drooped forward. She tapped the back of his head with the barrel of her gun, trying to wake him up. “Hey, rise and shine; time to set sail.”

The Scrapper shifted in his bonds and moaned out a yawn; meanwhile Piper made herself busy by pulling out the maps she used the night before. “Ey, it’s too early...” the Scrapper whined.

“I know,” said Piper, “I told you I’d be waking you up early, didn’t I?” She didn’t look up from the maps as she spoke, scrawling lines and circles all over the pages as she charted out today’s plan of attack. The Scrapper made a little noise of protest and Piper ignored him, getting up from the table to prep the ship for travel again. She went through the process with much less hassle this time, seeing as she actually knew what to do. The last thing she did was pull in the anchor, and then she finally went to the wheel, gripping it with an intense determination.

“Here I come,” Piper said, pushing the lever forward.

* * *

Piper’s crew had lost count of how many times they’ve gotten to Fen, only for them to snarl like a wild animal and run off somewhere else. They would give chase, taking out any Scrappers they encountered along the way, the process repeating. They tried coming in from different angles, they tried sneaking up on Fen: every thing they’ve attempted so far failed in one ridiculous way or another. At this point they had gone around in circles so many times that they were starting to familiarize themselves with the layout of the warehouse. And it was a huge warehouse, too, so they’ve been running around for a very long time. It was a good thing Billy discovered a large stash of water hiding in one of the innumerable rooms or else they all would’ve been dehydrated by now.

...Water can’t help with exhaustion, sadly, and they were feeling it _hard_.

“Damnit, Ah’m tired of this!” Sally yelled.

“I know, Sally, but we can’t give up know,” Wonky said. “I still think our Fen is in there, we just need to reach out to them and find out how to fix this.”

“Gyarrh, what we need to do is restrain ‘em. Knock ‘em out, maybe,” suggested Seabrass.

Ivanski seemed excited by this prospect. “Grumpy, excellent idea!”

“What did ye just call me?”

“That really is a good idea, though,” Wonky said. “I know what parts are essential to Fen’s conscious state, so if I can harmlessly remove them while they’re held down, we can figure out just how much damage they received and how we can fix it.”

“Um, do we know how we’re going to restrain them? Because I think we’ve got company...” Dora said as they walked into another room. Sure enough, Fen was in there, down on all fours and growling dazedly at a pile of Scrapper remains. Beatrix stopped tinkering with a bomb she found earlier to stay quiet.

Billy tapped Dora on the shoulder, catching her attention. “Blub.”

“That’s right, my stun gun! I still got it on me. Thanks Billy!”

Her stun gun was the one thing she managed to grab during the kidnapping, and the one thing the Scrappers somehow missed while she was being patted down. She would have used it sooner if she wasn’t immediately tied up…

Dora pulled out the gun and made sure it was properly loaded. “All right, when I give a signal you and Ivanski can go grab Fen by the arms and pin them against the wall. How does that sound?”

Ivanski and Billy nodded, and no one else seemed to object, so Dora got into position, aiming at Fen.

“Oh boy, is this what a real wilderness expedition is like?!” Valentine said excitedly.

Dora shook her head, exasperated. “Not now, Valentine...” She got into position again. “Ready...”

Luck wasn’t on their side this time, sadly, as Fen happened to turn around and notice them at that moment. They jumped back in surprise and landed on the wall.

Sally sighed heavily, “Here we go again...”

The crew was expecting Fen to go for the door and run off somewhere again, but this time they scaled the wall, crawling across the ceiling to the opposite wall and locking the door shut when they reached it. They proceeded to break the locking mechanism, effectively trapping both the crew and themself in the room.

Seabrass’s lower jaw broke off again.

“I don’t think we’re the only ones tired of this,” Beatrix said, trying to help poor Seabrass fix his jaw again.

Fen hopped off the wall and faced the crew, screen blinking and glitching, voice box throwing up static. Sparks rolled off of their arms as they pulled out their lightning coil, body seizing up and twitching as they appeared to struggle with movement.

“Well, scrap.”

* * *

“That’s it, that’s the warehouse!”

“Gollee, that’s a big one!”

“What, you didn’t believe me?”

“...I have many reasons to not believe you, you know.”

As Piper pulled on a few levers and knobs to slow the ship down, she felt the encouraging warmth of hope blooming inside her. Her crew was _in there_ and all she had to do was find them and get them out.

They were all going to be okay. She was sure of it.

She spun the wheel to the side, getting it into a proper docking position. Slowly the _Déjà vu_ slid into the dock, just like a closing drawer. Piper felt a sense of satisfaction as the ship rumbled to a stop. _Good job, Faraday. You’ve still got it in you._

Even as the pricking pain clawed gently at her chest, Piper couldn’t help but grin at her success. She switched off the rockets, but kept the furnace burning: she planned to return quickly with her crew, so she didn’t want to go through the hassle of getting the whole ship ready again once they got back. Then Piper grabbed a few med packs to bring with her, as well as her trusty Vectron rifle. Finally she untied the Scrapper from the pole and dragged him by the ropes into the warehouse.

The halls were wide, open, and surprisingly empty. It still bore the signature Scrapper vessel atmosphere, however; with loud creaking noises echoing through the halls and half-broken light fixtures minimally lighting the drab walls and floors.

“Huh, for a Scrapper warehouse of this size you’d think it would be a lot more lively,” Piper observed, brows raised in confusion. “This is just sad.”

“You’re right,” said the Scrapper. “This place is usually hopping. Something must have happened.”

Piper tensed up at that comment, her grip on the ropes tightening. Her thoughts were immediately flooded with worst case scenarios, countless mental images she could definitely do without—

“ _My crew!_ ” she blurted out, dropping the Scrapper and dashing off towards the nearest room, prepping her gun.

The Scrapper watched her run off, aghast. “So that’s it?!” he yelled, flailing around in his bonds. “You’re just gonna leave me here? WITHOUT SAYING GOODBYE OR ANYTHING?!”

Ignoring his outcries, Piper kicked down the door to the first room and ran in. Her eyes were drawn to the fresh embers strewn among the ‘bot parts, indicating that someone was in here recently. She slowly and meticulously examined the metal pieces, to see if her crew was among the remains…

Thankfully, she didn’t recognize any of the parts as one of her teammates’. Piper resisted hissing out in pain as her chest hurt again, longer and more painful this time. Thinking it was stress, she took in a deep breath and held it for a few seconds, breathing out slowly. _Easy, Piper, easy… Everything’s going to be fine._

She stood up from her kneeling position on the floor, holding a hand to her chest. The pain had gone away, for now at least.

Piper ran out of the room and into another one right across the hall. She would hate to find out her crew had been scrapped, but… she had to keep looking. If they were scrapped, she could rebuild them, no problem… but she wasn't too late already, was she?

No. They were going to get out of here alive. Piper would give anything, even the very fire that kept her alive to make sure of that.

None of her crew's parts were in this room. Onto the next one.

* * *

What does a Scrapper do when tied up and left to his own devices? Well, nothing, because he’s tied up. All he _could_ do was lay there as the minutes tediously ticked by, trying not to be bothered by the partially-built corpses lying about. For a Scrapper, this one was astonishingly yellow-bellied…

He jerked in surprise as the ground beneath him rumbled, signifying the arrival of another ship. He turned to see two Scrapper generals standing in the newly-opened doorway across the hall. They were fast to notice him and came over, hoisting him up with the ropes.

“What happened to you?” the bigger of the two snarled.

The Scrapper almost hesitated to tell the general what happened in fear that he would be scrapped, but considering the fact that he should have been dead right now, he realized he didn’t care what his fate was at this point.

“Them Cowbots found out what we did and captured me. One o’ them forced me to tell ‘er where we took the hostages. She’s running around here somewhere...”

The general’s faceplates twisted into a scowl. “You _idiot!_ ” he jeered, dropping the Scrapper and kicking him in the abdomen. He didn’t give him time to recover and jerked him up into a sitting position, rapidly undoing the knots in the rope. “Jem, go get backup; make sure our prisoners are in line. You, make yourself useful somewhere else. I’ll go teach this Cowbot that you don’t mess with our parts.”

The general let go of him, and he fell down again, still reeling from the blow to his stomach. The generals eventually left his field of vision, their footsteps fading into the creaking ambiance of the warehouse. After lying there for a few more minutes he willed himself to get up, thinking about what to do. It was then that he noticed that that Cowbot left the door to her ship opened…

A wicked grin formed on his face as he got a brilliantly _evil_ idea. He snatched up a crowbar that was lying around and ran off to find someone willing to aide him.

* * *

The bulbs and bobbles that were still attached to Fen were in a state of disarray, blinking and flashing in a random manner as bolts of electricity sparked off their body. The power localized at a point at the end of their arm, the lighting coil appearing to be overcharged with energy.

“ _Watch out!_ ”

Lightning streaked across the room as the steambots tumbled out of the way, running for cover. Fen pursued the closest – Seabrass, in this case – and tackled him to the ground, raising their arm to bring it down on him.

Seabrass caught Fen’s fist, his hand shaking. The two of them struggled for a bit before Seabrass brought up his legs and kicked Fen off: Fen went flying and landed in a dazed heap a few feet away.

Dora saw her chance and took it, jumping out from her hiding spot and firing her stun gun. It hit Fen square in the chest, and they laid there helplessly, screeching out meaningless noise.

“ _Now!_ ” Dora yelled, and Ivanski and Billy leaped out from behind a pile of scrap, scooped up Fen by the arms and pinned them to the nearest wall. All the while Fen was blaring out loud, ungodly sounds. Wonky quickly came over, looming over Fen as he set to work, hands moving in a quick, shaky manner.

“I’m so sorry, friend, we are going to fix this, I promise,” said Wonky, flinching as Fen let out another wave of static. Fen’s body jolted with every wire unplugged, their programming unsure how to react to the loss of power to certain systems. Even so Wonky kept going, hands working quickly, sparks flying, and just as the stun gun’s effect started to wear off—

The final wire was popped out of place and Fen’s screen went black, the static from their voice box ceasing. Wonky pulled back. “Okay, it’s done,” he confirmed, breathing a sigh of relief.

Billy, scared by the whole ordeal, fell on his bottom, closing his eyes as he tried to stop his head from spinning. Ivanski caught Fen’s limp body, cradling them gently. “It’s okay; we will help Fen,” he said, as though he was trying to comfort Fen.

The rest of the crew emerged from their various hiding spots, checking up on each other and making sure no one was injured. Everyone seemed to be fine, thankfully. Even Billy eventually recovered from his dizzy spell.

“Excellent performance, officer!” said Beatrix, saluting Wonky.

“Please, you can hardly call me an officer,” he chuckled. “You mates are the ones who did nearly all of the work, I should be complimenting you guys.”

They all replied with protests of “No,” and “You really did a good job!” as they all shared laughs, some shoulder-punching and lighthearted teasing taking place.

“...Now what? The door’s locked. How will we get out?” Valentine asked.

“Oh dang, Ah didn’t think about that,” Sally said. “Hmmm… Ah’m gonna kick it down, like we did to the other one!” She ran over to the door and kicked it forcefully, but it didn’t budge. She tried again. No dice.

After a few more tries she got fed up with it and started ramming it with her body. The crew tried to stop her, but it was already too late: she slammed herself one too many times and crumpled at the base of the door, out of it and seeing double.

It was… awkward, to say the least. Sally was usually brimming with energy, running around and yelling weird things at everybody, no matter how injured or sickly she was: seeing her on the floor, dizzy and helpless was a bit jarring. She eventually recovered, but only after she accidentally mistook some of her teammates for Scrappers. That was fun to deal with.

Beatrix pulled out the bomb she was working on earlier. “Give me twenty minutes to change the components in this bomb to give it a more forceful explosion,” she piped up before anyone could get away with any more stupid ideas. “It should knock down the door for sure.”

Seabrass’s optics grew wide as he took in the large size of the bomb. “Gyaarh, make sure ye don’t blow us all to smithereens!”

“Hey!” Ivanski said, “Something is wrong with Fen...”

The general happiness in the air faded with that statement, all eyes in the room going to Fen and Ivanski. The strongbot wasn’t lying: something did, in fact, appear to be wrong with Fen. Their body was shuddering in his arms, the screen occasionally flashing with meaningless letters and numbers. Suddenly their body started sparking and, startled, Ivanski dropped Fen and jumped back, their body falling with a sickening _crunch_. Still their body kept shaking, bolts flying off in all directions—

A brilliant blue light shot out of their body, a thunderclap of equal magnificence booming through the room as sparks flew _everywhere_. The power centralized at a point above Fen’s broken body, the light buzzing and blinking and putting on a dazzling show.

After a few minutes, the light faded and the electricity died down, leaving behind a small, glowing blur orb floating above Fen’s body. Two rectangular shapes appeared on the orb, which blinked like a pair of eyes.

And then it spoke. In a familiar, yet pitched-up voice:

“I remember EVERYTHING. I think...”

The clatter that followed wasn’t the sound of Seabrass’s jaw falling: rather, it was the sound of his entire body crashing to the floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah. This is the chapter that introduces the Dig 2 elements of this fic. For those of you who don’t know Fen was a big character in that game, if a bit… small in stature. Dig 2 was pretty much their “origin” appearance in the SteamWorld universe.
> 
> Oh man, we're at chapter 5 already… that means my favorite chapter's coming up next week. You won't want to miss it. Watch this space!


	6. A Matter of Trust

The pain was gradually getting worse the more Piper pushed on. But she had no choice; she _had_ to keep going. Her crew was in this very warehouse and she was going to make sure they got out alive.

And so she scoured the countless rooms, searching for any sign of her crew, calling for them by name.

Her efforts only continued to be fruitless, and Piper was starting to grow frustrated with herself. Her crew could be in terrible danger right now and she wasn’t by their side to help them. What kind of a captain was she if she couldn’t take care of her crew?

The ache stabbed her deeply again and she pressed a hand onto her chest, hissing in pain. _Relax, deep breath in, deep breath out..._

The pain still hadn’t gone away at this point so Piper had chalked it up to something malfunctioning inside of her. But she couldn’t stop to get it fixed now. She had to save her crew.

The desperate captain’s cries were heard all throughout the halls, reaching the auditors of the Scrappers that were, unknown to Piper, pursuing her.

* * *

“C’mon, Seabrass, come back to us...”

Seabrass groaned as his eyes fluttered open. He lifted a hand to his dizzy head and rubbed the spot between his eyes, trying to blink the spots out of his fuzzy vision. Once his stubborn optics finally cooperated and focused, he came face-to-face with a concerned Wonky, who sighed in relief as Seabrass came to consciousness.

“Thank goodness, you gave everyone quite a scare, you did...”

“Gyargh, what happened?”

Wonky seemed hesitant to answer that. He looked back at the others as if he was asking for help, then shrugged and turned back to Seabrass. “You should see for yourself… just don’t pass out again."

Confusion washed over his face as Wonky moved out of the way, but that was quickly replaced with shock as he took in the sight before him:

A light blue ball of light was floating over Fen’s broken body. Everybody else was in various states of stupefaction or terror, some as stiff as a rock while others looked about ready to scream.

“...Why is everyone staring at me?” the ball of light asked, confusion written all over their… eyes?

Dora was the first to get her nerves sorted enough for her to speak up. “Fen… is that you?”

“Of course it is! Why wouldn’t it be me?”

“It’s just… You’re usually in there,” Dora said, pointing to Fen’s now lifeless husk sitting in a sad pile on the floor.

“Oh, that thing,” Fen said. “It’s a long story and we don’t have time for stories right now. We should get out of here.” It was obvious Fen didn’t want to talk about… whatever just happened, but they were right; they all should get out. Perhaps they could steal an escape pod and find Piper.

All eyes in the room floated to Beatrix, whose jaw was still slack from surprise. “...Oh, right, the bomb!” she said when she realized everyone was looking at her. “I’m working on it!” Her focus turned back to the bomb and she and resumed her fiddling with it, her practiced clamps carefully disassembling sensitive components.

While Bea worked on the explosive, a better part of the crew had surrounded Fen, curiosity taking them over as they studied Fen in awe. Valentine seemed to be the only one brave enough to get especially close to them, cautiously reaching an arm out. “I’ve never seen anything like this before,” he muttered. “May I?”

Much to his surprise, Fen didn’t hesitate to snuggle up to his opened palm, closing their eyes and purring in delight at the attention.

“Oh my, that’s ticklish!” said Valentine. “You feel so… _strange_. I don’t know how to describe it!”

Fen giggled and pulled back, their eyes curving upwards. With their lack of a mouth, it was the best of a smile that they could manage.

Wonky spoke up just then. “I know we don’t have time for any long explanations, but could you at least answer me some questions, Fen?”

“Sure, what’s up?”

“Were you really a part of Vectron?”

“Yeah, I was. I broke out the hivemind a long time ago, though.”

“I see. And as you appear now… is this your true form?”

“I think so… But I liked having arms better. I could do more things.”

Wonky nodded. “And you say you remember everything… how far back does that go?”

“I… remember being on the earth, before it exploded. So that must mean… over four hundred years ago!”

Once again, the crew was shocked into silence by this revelation. Fen sure didn’t act like they were four-hundred years old…

“Can we leave yet?” Fen asked. It was as though their breaking free of shell had surfaced some alternate personality of theirs which resembled that of an overexcited, impatient little kid.

“Shut up and listen! Ye hear that?” Seabrass barked. Although the crew still hadn’t gotten over the fact that a literal immortal was standing – or floating, rather – in front of them, they were silent and still, listening for whatever Seabrass had heard.

A faint, despairing voice, calling out their names one by one.

“ _Captain!_ ”

* * *

Out of all the words that would best describe Piper right now, “a total wreck” was fitting.

Worry overwhelmed her as did the deep pain in her chest: worry for her crew, worry that she’d faint before she got to them, worry that they wouldn’t make it out alive.

She just had to keep burying those feelings, or else she wouldn’t get anywhere. _They would make it out alive,_ she kept telling herself. It’s what she’d been telling herself for the past two days. It _had_ to be true, it just had to.

Then, she stopped. She heard something coming from the hall; a flurry of voices calling out in… concern?

Piper stepped out of the room she was observing and focused on the voices, tuning out all of the background noise around her.

_Those were her crew’s voices._

Just like that, any fear that her crew was dead she harbored melted away as she sprinted down the hallway, her breath flighty and jittery with nerves. She found herself at a large, reinforced door at the end of the hall, outstretched hands connecting with a thud as she abruptly stopped herself. “Hey! You okay, fellas?” she said, unable to stop the anxiety from leaking into her voice.

Multiple voices answered her with statements ranging from “We’re okay!” to “Safe and assembled!” and all at once Piper released a breath she didn’t know she was holding. “Thank goodness...”

“Are you okay Captain?” another, not-so-familiar voice asked just then. Piper narrowed her eyes.

“I’m okay, but… who said that?”

“It’s me, Fen!”

That was Fen? It sounded way too high-pitched to be Fen’s voice…

“Fen? You sound different...”

“Something happened and I—”

“FEN, WHAT HAPPENED?! THEY DIDN’T HURT YOU, DID THEY?!” Piper yelled, her mother-hen instincts kicking in.

“Nonono! I’m okay; it’s a long story and I’ll explain later.”

“The door be locked and we can’t get out!” Seabrass interrupted. “Is there any way to open it on yer side, Cap’n?”

Piper was still curious about Fen’s well-being, but seeing as they insisted that they were fine and none of the others seemed concerned about it, Piper shrugged it off for now. She scanned the doorway for anything of interest: sadly, the door bore no lock nor handle that appeared to open the door from her side.

“Sorry fellas, there’s nothing,” she sighed.

“That’s all right then; we’ll jus’ wait for Bea ta finish with her bomb,” Sally assured.

“Bea, are you listening?! You better be careful with that thing; you hear me?!” Piper commanded. Last thing her crew needed right now was to be blasted away by a nasty explosion.

She heard Beatrix chuckling, followed by, “Loud and clear, Captain!”

A relieved smile spread across Piper’s face, and she pressed her forehead against the door, sighing. If this damn door wasn’t in the way, she could reach out and touch her crew right now. Hug them and assure them that everything would be all right. So close, yet so far.

“Fellas, I’m—I’m—”

“There she is,” a gruff voice behind Piper growled. She whipped around with a start, hand going to her gun at her waist.

The large Scrapper snickered and bumped the butt of their rifle on the floor. “Let’s get her boys, and teach her what happens when you try to mess with our precious parts.”

_'Our precious parts’?_

Piper’s hands curled into tight, shaking fists at her sides. How _dare_ they call her crew that; they were _so much more_ than a bunch of parts. These damn Scrappers were in for it now.

Hell hath no fury like a Piper scorned.

She drew her gun and let loose a shot, tumbling for cover immediately after. “I’ll be right back, fellas, we’ve got company!”

Bulletfire rattled against the door, startling the steambots gathered around it. “Shiver me timbers, that doesn’t sound good,” grumbled Seabrass.

Sally snarled in frustration and punched the door repeatedly. “THOSE STINKIN’ VARMINTS RUIN EVERYTHING!”

Shivering in fear, Fen backed away from the door, worry flooding their thoughts like a wave. Piper was in danger and there was nothing they could do about it… Or could they?

“Wait, I can go through walls!” Fen realized aloud, attracting all eyes in the room. They all looked at Fen like they were crazy, and Fen knew they sounded it. “I know, it sounds crazy, but it’s true! It’s a thing I can do now that I’m out of my shell.”

“Even so, how’s that going to help? You don’t exactly… have arms anymore,” Dora said.

“Trust me, as wild as it sounds, I can get out and help Captain. It’s really crazy but it might just work...”

“What might just work?”

“I DON’T HAVE TIME TO EXPLAIN. I’M GOING.”

And just like that, Fen zipped through the door, a faint, fading blue glow being the only indicator that they were there at all.

“Well paint me brown and call me a steamhorse, they did it,” Sally said.

“Is bomb done yet, Bea?” Ivanski asked.

Beatrix shook her head, face scrunched up in aggravation. “Nope; these tubes are giving me trouble. I hate Scrapper bombs...”

Now, they were truly helpless. All they could do now was listen to the gunfire from the opposite side of the door, hoping that Fen would be able to help their distressed captain.

* * *

Fen tumbled through the door, their entire body shuddering at the odd sensation. They hadn’t done that for a long time; no wonder it felt so weird…

Looking to their left, they found Piper ducking behind a wall, occasionally firing a blind shot over her shoulder. There were so many Scrappers, however, that her random shots took down at least one every time.

“There’s so many,” Fen said with a shudder, flying towards Piper. “Captain!”

Piper drew in a sharp gasp as she laid eyes on Fen, snapping her arm around to aim her gun at them.

“Captain, it’s me, Fen!” Fen said frantically. In their current state, they didn’t think bullets (Or Vectron lasers, for that matter) would be able to harm them, but they wanted to be safe.

Piper’s photorecpetors widened in shock. “What?! But—but how—”

“It’s a long story.”

Letting out a breath of aggravation, Piper briefly emerged from her cover to shoot an advancing Scrapper. “Get down!” she said, cowering behind the wall again as a stray bullet grazed her arm. Fen ducked down with her and settled on her shoulder. “What are you doing here Fen? You don’t exactly look fit to battle like… that.”

“I can go through walls in this form! And I’ve come to help you!” Fen said eagerly.

“Fen, I don’t want you to get hurt, go back where it’s safe, please!” At the sound of footsteps approaching from her left, Piper got up and grabbed the Scrapper by the chest, twisted its head off and kicked the body away.

“Trust me captain, let me help you!” Fen said, desperation clear in their tone.

“No Fen, go back where it’s safe; Captain’s orders!” Glancing to the right, Piper noticed a Scrapper aiming their gun at Fen. She quickly got in front of Fen and shot the Scrapper, but took a bullet to her shoulder in the process.

“Captain, please!”

“ _N_ _o_ _!_ _I’m not losing you again!_ ” Piper screamed with raw emotion, pinning down a Scrapper to her side. She shot another one coming in on her front, kicked the one to her side away, then whipped around to shoot one coming from behind. The Scrappers were closing in on her now, coming at her from all sides.

Amid all the clamor, Piper heard a voice calling to her from the door.

“Ma’am, please listen to them!” Wonky shouted. “I know you’re scared, probably angry, but don’t let that cloud your judgment. You don’t have to do this alone; _let them help you._ ”

Panting heavily from sheer rage, Piper glanced at the door, then the Scrappers surrounding her, then at Fen. Fen had the most concerned look in their eyes, Piper swore it was borderlining fear.

“Do you trust me?” asked Fen.

After the shortest moment of hesitation, Piper nodded, a nervous glint in her eyes.

Fen darted into her furnace: a warm, fuzzy sensation that pulled a gasp out of her throat. Suddenly she felt a surge of power flowing through her body, originating from her furnace. “Fen, what now?!” she said, looking at her hands. Small blue bolts sparked from her fingers, yet it didn’t hurt her at all.

“Shoot them, punch them, whatever’s convenient!”

Piper let out a growl as she slammed her fist into an incoming Scrapper, the results not at all what she expected: the power coursed through her arm into the Scrapper, overloading it with electricity. The second she pulled her hand back the power cut off and the Scrapper burst into pieces. Seeing her new display of power, the Scrappers surrounding her started to slowly back away, a look of terror on their faces. Piper glanced back down at her hand, awed at the way the blue volts seemingly danced around her fingers.

She smiled as she grabbed her gun and aimed it at the nearest Scrapper. Once again the power streamed through her pipes, sparks of electricity migrating into the barrel of the gun as she charged a shot. Seconds later a supercharged bullet flew out of the muzzle, moving at the speed of light: the Scrapper was immediately decommissioned, its parts flying all over the place.

Piper looked at her rifle in admiration as sparks curled around the barrel. “Fen, this is amazing; how are you doing this?”

“...I don’t know! It’s a thing I can just… do.”

“Well whatever it is, I. FEEL. GREAT!” Piper exclaimed, running up to another Scrapper and delivering an uppercut right to its jaw. This one too was disassembled, unable to stay together due to the amount of force the electricity unleashed on its tattered body. Piper cycled through her process of punches and gunshots, taking out Scrappers one by one. The Scrappers didn't even dare to lay a finger on her during her rampage, and by the end of it she had taken all of them out. There were piles of parts surrounding her, volts of electricity coming off of her body like crazy.

She had never felt so _alive_.

But just like that, her euphoria was shattered as the pain in her chest reminded her that it existed, wrestling her to the floor as she pushed her hands against her chassis. This time she couldn’t hold in a whimper as the pain twisted her pipes into knots.

Piper felt a flutter in her furnace as a panicked Fen asked, “Captain, are you okay?!”

As much as Piper wanted to say “No, I’m not okay,” she didn’t want to bother Fen – or anyone, for that matter – about this until she got her crew out of here. Putting on as straight of a face as she could manage, Piper wobbled onto her feet and got out, “It’s nothing, I’m fine. Let’s go finish—”

“ _Captain, behind you!_ ” Fen said suddenly, and Piper whipped herself around—

It was already too late: the large Scrapper had smashed their giant wrench into her chest. But with Fen still in her furnace the electricity flowed through the wrench, electrifying the Scrapper. The two of them then broke apart and fell to the floor, Piper screaming out bloody murder the whole time.

She felt something snap in her chest and it _hurt,_ it _really really hurt_ and it _wouldn’t stop oh cog make it stop somebody PLEASE—_

She curled up in pain on the floor, pressing her clamps so hard into her chest that the metal was nearly denting. Her vision was blurring, auditors ringing as she writhed like a worm on concrete. There was something bright and blue floating in front of her but it was too blurry to make out and looking at it only made her optics hurt and _why did it hurt so BAD—_

“Captain?! Piper, what’s wrong?!” Fen’s voice said, distorted and disconnected. Piper struggled with her senses, trying to focus on Fen’s voice. She could hear her own labored breathing, a terrifying grating noise from her chest, as well as heavy footsteps coming in from behind.

“Captain, answer me! Oh no Piper _get up please—!_ ”

Tears started to pour out of Piper’s eyes as she weakly reached for her weapon, muttering out broken apologies and partial sentences to poor Fen.

“Fen—I’m—I’m sorry...”

* * *

“Damnit Bea, hurry up, will ye?!”

“I’m going as fast as I can, Seabrass, don’t rush me!” Bea sputtered, her clamps slipping a little too close to a sensitive wire for comfort.

“Give the poor girl a break; we’re all stressed out here!” Valentine said. “What if I rushed you while you were doing something dangerous?”

“Is that a threat, old man?! Gyaarh, I’ll rush _ye_ alright! I’ll rush ye right into next week!”

“Now is not good time to fight!” Ivanski interjected.

“Don’t ye dare try to wiggle yer way into this, ye _sissy_.”

That statement pulled out a few gasps from the others. Wonky, currently the only one in the mental state to stand in as mediator, stepped in.

“Gabriel, there is no need for name-calling like that. Apologize now,” he ordered, all four of his arms crossed.

“You don’t try to enter this either, gyaarh!” Seabrass snapped, shaking his hook hand at Wonky threateningly. “Bea, ye better be done in five minutes or I swear to cog—”

“ _I’m trying, I’m trying, I’m going as fast as I can!_ ” Beatrix bawled, voice thick with tears. Seabrass was putting her under so much pressure that her hands were starting to shake—then, and only then did he finally realize how harsh he was being.

Ivanski, seemingly unaffected by the pirate’s insults, rushed to Bea’s side, kneeling down beside her and rubbing her back in a soothing motion. “Shhh. It’s okay. Deep breaths,” he soothed. Slowly but surely, Beatrix composed herself enough to withdraw her shivering clamps from deep within the guts of the explosive, removing the risk of it going off in her stressed state. She wrapped her arms around herself in a form of self-comfort, leaning into the strongbot’s chest. Ivanski then looked up at Seabrass with murder in his eyes.

Seabrass gulped and looked away, like he was trying to pretend all of that didn’t just happen. He heard the floor clattering as a wheeled ‘bot approached him from his side. “I know you’ve got a temper on you Seabrass, but man, that was a low blow. You should apologize,” Payroll said. Sally, who was quite a hothead herself, even nodded in agreement.

Seabrass only stared at the floor, as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. “Stinkin’ penny pincher, good-fer-nuthin’—”

“What did you just call me?!”

“ _Arrrrrgh! I don’t owe any of ye anything!_ ” Seabrass shrieked, steam shooting out of his pipe like a tea kettle. Growling in fury he ran up to the door, scattering the ‘bots in his path, and then he started beating the door furiously, the metal clanging loudly with every punch and kick he unleashed on it.

And then the noise stopped with a particularly loud bang, and a groan of pain from Seabrass. He had fallen to the floor, his hook hand detached and laying pitifully next to him. He pretended to not notice Wonky looming over him.

“Are you ready to apologize, yet, Seabrass?”

Seabrass laid silent for another minute or so before sitting up, knees bent with his elbows laying on them. He let out a sad sigh, his demeanor suddenly doing a complete one-eighty. “I don’t wanna die...”

“Oh, _now_ it’s all doom and gloom, is it? C’mon, get up.”

He complied with another heavy sigh, grabbing his hook in the process and setting it back on. Shoulders hunched, he avoided Wonky’s gaze, staring guiltily at the floor.

“Go on, apologize.”

For the first time since entering the warehouse, a look of calm and sincerity entered Seabrass’s optics, to everybody’s surprise. He turned to Ivanski and Beatrix, and with a shaky voice he got out, “I’m sorry for sayin’ the things that I said. Me mind wasn’t in the right place.” His frown deepened, and he held out his hook, shaking. “When I get me hook on them Scrappers…”

“That’s the Seabrass we know!” Sally said, giving him a good-natured punch in the shoulder. It was much harder than he expected, however, and he nearly fell over.

“Gyarrh!” he moaned, trying to put on a hurt expression as he rubbed his shoulder. It looked laughably fake though and he didn’t get so much as a look of pity from anyone.

A chuckle floated across the room, and they all turned to see Beatrix smiling, looking much better already. “It’s okay, soldier; I forgive you. I know how you feel… Captain was the one holding us together. I mean, now… Just _look at us._ ”

They were all a tired mess of steambots, limbs heavy with weariness, the minor injuries they received from random run-ins with Scrappers starting to settle in. Not to mention the stress that was practically hanging in the air. Everybody was a terrified wreck…

“That’s why we have to work together,” Wonky said. “Even in the face of peril, Piper would want us to unite, never letting anything tear us apart—no matter how dangerous or scary it might seem.”

“She needs us ta stick together now more than ever,” said Sally. “She needs our help—as a team!”

“A team, right!” Beatrix said, getting to her feet and pumping clenched fists in the air. “Let’s do this!”

Ecstatic cheers of agreement rang through the air, followed by an endearing “I blub you all.”

The entire crew froze. That was the second time Billy had said anything beyond “Blub” during their time in Piper’s crew. Whether it was his voice coming back, or just a few words beyond his vernacular that he could somehow say, the crew wasn’t sure, but they loved it nonetheless.

“You ever considered looking at Billy’s voice box, Dora?” Wonky said. “I’m not very good with those...”

“It’s passed my mind time and time again, but honestly, would we really want to fix it?” Dora shrugged. “I like Billy just the way he is. It would ultimately be up to him.”

“Blub!”

The crew was back at playing the waiting game, trying to blot out the gunfire in the background. Bea was elbow deep in the large bomb, eyes cold and focused as she switched around the little mechanisms that changed how it worked.

And then the bulletfire stopped. Dora’s manic pacing by the door came to a halt, and she approached it cautiously, like it would spring open at any moment.

“Captain, are you oka—”

“ _Aaaaaaaaaaagh!_ ”

Dora flinched away from the door so hard that she landed roughly on her bottom. “Oww…”

Payroll wheeled over to help her up. “What the hell was that?!”

Dora was still shaken as she got to her feet, dusting her hands off on her chassis. “That was Piper,” she said. “I’m sure of it.”


	7. Heartbroken

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Toy Story 4 shattered my feels so I'm gonna post this and hope y'all know how I felt in the theater

Piper felt like she had been dipped in lava. Pain radiated through her body; in her head, in her arms, in her legs—all because she refused to get whatever was going on in her chest checked. Piper had been told she was exceedingly stubborn; now look where it got her…

Suffering on the floor in a Scrapper warehouse, a large Scrapper encroaching upon her with his giant wrench overhead, ready to swing it down on her and end it all. It was ironic, in a way. Those whom she bested, were now besting her.

Her gun was out of reach. She was helpless, and now poor Fen was about to be scarred for life.

She was always the one to find the positives in a situation, but this time, no matter how hard she tried… there was nothing. Nothing to look forward to…

But death.

* * *

“Stand clear!” Beatrix hollered, and everyone in her line of site moved out of the way, allowing her to focus on her target: the door that had been torturing them for so long, separating them from both their endangered captain and their path of escape. Finally, it was going to be no more.

When she was sure the trajectory was right, Bea launched it, and it sailed through the air in a beautiful arc, just as she predicted, and landed right at the base of the door with a deafening boom. A large hole was blown in the door, the metal burnt black at the edges.

When the dust cleared however, they were met with a startling sight.

Piper was laying on the floor, motionless, Fen floating near her head. An enormous Scrapper towered over her, raising a giant wrench over his head, about to bring it down on her.

“ _Captain!_ ”

* * *

Piper braced for impact… but it never came.

A bullet whizzed over her head and hit the Scrapper in just the right spot, putting its photoreceptors out of commission. A blue blur quickly followed, colliding with the Scrapper – multiple times – and then she heard the tell-tale clattering of pieces raining to the floor. In her state of distress, however, the sound was amplified ten times over and it hurt her head to hear it.

A gentle pair of hands – two pairs, actually – lifted her up by her shoulders. She tried to focus on the face looming over her, gradually making it out as Wonky’s. Her head lolled to the side and from that point she saw more blurry figures surrounding her, bearing the general color scheme of her crew members. “Fe—Fellas, I’m—I’m sorry...” Piper whimpered, shutting her optics tightly in pain.

Wonky shushed her, “What are you apologizing for, Ma’am?”

“F—for letting you guys g—get taken away… I wasn’t fast enough… And—and—”

Wonky shook his head, his grip on her shoulders growing just a little tighter. “Piper, you aren’t to blame for any of that. _None of us_ could possibly have seen those Scrappers coming.”

Piper didn’t seem to hear him and continued, “I—I came to save you gu—guys,” she paused as she shifted slightly, trying to withstand the pain. “...But y—you guys end up having to—to save me.”

This time a wave of voices tried to hush Piper, making her flinch in pain from the sudden noise. Wonky managed to shut them up for the most part but Fen blurted out, “We would save you a million more times if we had to!”

“Yes, we would,” Wonky confirmed. “That is nothing to be sorry for, Piper. You’re our friend, you of all steambots should know that—we would do anything for you.”

“That includes savin’ yer stubborn hydraulics, gyaarh!”

“Not now, Seabrass...” Valentine whined.

Just then Piper flinched in pain, her clamps flying to her chest. “Agh!”

“Are you okay, Ma’am?! What happened, what did you hurt?” Wonky said, trying to keep his voice calm.

“I think,” Piper choked out, “Somethin’ happened to my—my heart… Aaaagh...”

“What?!”

“Your heart?!”

“Oh my cog, no...”

“Shhhh, quiet, quiet!” Wonky yelled over the others. “Let me see, Piper...”

Carefully he reached for her hands and coaxed her to pull them away from her chest—where, to his surprise, he found no injury: however, there was an unpainted patch of metal, implying that it had been damaged at some recent point. “What happened here, Ma’am?” he asked, smoothing a hand over her chest, but pulling it back when she flinched at the touch.

“I—I got shot there th—the other night, when you guys were ki—kidnapped.” Piper curled in on herself, unable to hold in her pained moans. “Nnnng, it hurrrrts...”

“Shhh, I know. I would take a closer look at it but I don’t have my tools with me.”

“Gotta get back to the ship,” Piper mumbled, trying to stand up.

“Piper, please...”

“We’re not gonna be able ta stop her, are we?” said Sally.

Seabrass shook his head. “Nope. Cap’n’s as hard-headed as a steammule.”

“Ma’am, if you’re going to walk the way there will you at least let us help you?” Beatrix said.

Ivanski held out his arm. “Ivanski will help Captain if she wants.”

He let out a grunt as Piper suddenly tumbled into his arms, then pushed herself up with shaking limbs. She shook her head, clearly frustrated by the fact that the pain was affecting her coordination.

“Please let him help you, Captain,” Fen begged. Ivanski offering to help her was probably for the best: Piper was tall and much heavier than she looked so if she toppled over at any given moment Ivanski had the strength to catch her.

Piper let out what seemed like a grunt of resignation and curled her clamps around Ivanski’s strong arm, leaning heavily on his shoulder and closing her eyes.

“Piper, where did you park the _Déjà vu_?” asked Wonky.

Piper cracked her optics open a sliver to find the direction she came from, then shakily held out her arm and pointed. “That way.” She hugged Ivanski’s arm tighter, but the strongbot didn’t push her away, allowing her to channel the pain.

“Bluuub!”

“What’s that, Billy? ...Oh. _Oh no_ ,” Beatrix said in a harrowing tone.

Piper perked up a little bit. “What—what’s wrong?”

Payroll started, “Billy—” but was quickly interrupted by Dora.

“Nnnnothing! Nothing’s wrong!” she said. “Piper’s already stressed out as it is,” she whispered to Payroll. “Better to not put any more strain on her heart.”

Footsteps were light and quiet as Wonky sneakily took a med kit from Piper’s belt and went up to Billy, pulling out a roll of gauze. “Hold still,” he said softly, wrapping the gauze tightly around the large gash on Billy’s forehead. It was leaking oil, the black stuff dripping down his face. “Hit your head a little too hard, I see,” he said, tying a neat knot with the bandage. “This should control the leaking until you can get that patched up.

Billy nodded. “Blub.”

“You sure?”

“Blub, Blub-ub bluub!”

“Okay then, just be careful.”

Wonky looked over his shoulder at Piper. She hadn’t moved, for the most part, and remained clinging to Ivanski’s shoulder, face set in a pained expression. Good; she didn’t seem to notice. She appeared to be too out of it to notice, anyway…

Wonky retrieved Piper’s gun and hat – which had fallen off of her in the chaos – and returned the latter to its rightful place on her head, giving it a solid pat. “You okay, Ma’am?”

“‘M fine,” Piper said, although she was clearly _not_ fine. The crew would have to roll with her obstinance for now, though...

“That’s our captain. We’ll pull through this.”

After a short bit of planning, it was decided that Beatrix would lead the charge, while Ivanski, Piper, Wonky, Fen and Dora – who was in charge of carrying Fen’s broken shell – stayed in the back. The gang marched onward through the musty hallways, being sure to go at a pace their troubled captain could keep up with.

Unfortunately, their travels were interrupted before long.

Yet another gaggle of Scrappers rounded the corner, stopping the Cowbots in their tracks.

“Looks like we got sum walking parts runnin’ ‘round loose!” one of them jeered.

“Let’s get ‘em, Cuz!”

“Run for cover!” Beatrix commanded, and Ivanski swept Piper off of her feet, carrying her bridal style to cover behind a wall. Wonky, Dora and Fen went in a different direction and ended up behind another wall from which they could still see Ivanski and Piper.

All hell broke loose seconds later, bullets pummeling the walls. Laid against Ivanski’s chest, Piper pressed the base of her palms into her auditors, desperately trying to drown out the loud noise. She couldn’t keep in her loud yells of agony nor the tears streaming down her face. Ivanski did what he could to comfort her, a reassuring hand on her shoulder, clamps gingerly wiping away her tears.

Across the room, Wonky had his own issues to deal with. Dora tripped over a large chunk of scrap during their retreat and twisted her foot into an odd angle. Besides that, both she and Fen had grown eerily quiet—Wonky didn’t need to think twice to tell that something was bothering them.

“Are you two okay?” he asked, unscrewing a bolt in Dora’s ankle. “You look… shaken.”

“I—I’ve never seen Captain Piper so _weak_ before,” Dora admitted. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen her cry either. It’s heartbreaking to see...”

“Yeah,” agreed Fen. “She always seems so tough!”

“She is indeed the most unflappable steambot I’ve ever met,” said Wonky. “She bottles up her emotions to the point that it’s unhealthy. But you can only hold it in for so long before you break. That goes for everyone, even for Piper.” With some screws removed Wonky was able to wiggle Dora’s foot back into a proper position without so much of a protest from her. He put the screws back in and she tested her foot out, tapping it on the floor a bit.

“Much better, thank you.” She grabbed the large sack which held Fen’s shell from her side and hefted it onto her lap. Dora and Fen looked to the other side of the hall, where Ivanski and Piper were situated. The captain wasn’t writhing as much as before and had grown rather still. They could almost say she looked relaxed if it weren’t for the way her face was contorted in pain.

The bulletfire suddenly ended with a thunderous bang, and for a long moment, there was silence.

“...Coast is clear!” Beatrix barked.

“Where the heck is Payroll?” asked Sally. “He was right next ta me a minute ago.”

Right on cue, Payroll wheeled out from behind a tall pile of scrap. “Here I am!” He shot out a hand to catch a small bag that had fallen out of his arms, which were overflowing with loot.

“Were you just rolling around fishing up swag this whole time?” asked Valentine.

“I can’t help myself; this place is loaded!”

“Now isn’t the best time...”

“Sorry... But seriously,” Payroll said, “Something about this stuff is rubbing me the wrong way. It’s a lot lighter than the swag we usually find.”

“That could just be because it’s Scrapper junk.”

“Toss one o’ them o’er here,” Seabrass yelled, arms outstretched. However, Payroll, encumbered by his load, couldn’t quite see straight and ended up chucking a bag in Seabrass’s general direction.

It hit him in the face. The pirate wasn’t happy.

“GYAAARRRH! LOOK AT WHERE YER THROWIN’ YER SACKS BEFORE YE TOSS ‘EM ALL WILLY-NILLY!”

“Shut up and open it already!” said Sally, extremely curious about the bag’s contents.

Seabrass continued to grumble about Payroll’s incompetence even as he opened the bag, walking over to a more illuminated area so he could see the innards better. Sally was hovering over him like a hummingbird around a flower, trying to see what was inside. Seabrass was _this_ close to pushing her away but he didn’t only because he knew he already caused so much trouble today.

He peered inside, brows furrowed… “It just be scrap metal.”

“I knew it!” Valentine said with a hint of pride in his tone.

“Hang on...” Seabrass prodded the metal with his hook, stirring it around in the bag a little. A grave look came over his face, his optics widening. “It’s not just any scrap metal. I recognize it.”

“Lemme see!” Sally said, snatching the bag. She dug into it and pulled out a small bronze ring. Her face lit up with recognition. “Ain’t this from the control board?”

“Wait, what?! What’s happening?!” Dora said, running up to them. The rest of the crew quickly followed, Piper cradled in Invanski’s arms. Continuing to dig through the bag, Sally pulled out numerous metal scraps and threw them on the floor. Wonky came over to the growing pile and knelt down, picking up the scraps and carefully inspecting them.

“These… These are all from the ship, guys. _Our_ ship.”

The ensuing minute it took for the implications of this revelation to hit them felt like a lifetime.

“Oh _scrap!_ ”

* * *

Piper was squirming again. “I—Ivanski, let me—”

“No walking for Captain! She must rest!”

“Will—Will someone please t—tell me what the hell is happening?!” Piper yelled, her headache intensifying from Ivanski’s wild sprinting movement. She had a particularly bad spell of pain a few minutes ago, suppressing all of her senses greatly. Her vision was swimming and voices echoed, and she couldn’t tell right from left. She was at least aware of her surroundings now, though, but for some reason everyone was running and had this frantic, perturbed look in their photoreceptors.

Soaring around Ivanski’s shoulder, Fen flew along near Piper’s head. “I’m not totally sure but we’re thinking that the Scrappers might’ve—”

Ivanski came screeching to a halt, Piper clutching his chest to avoid falling out of his hold.

“What, what is it—” Piper stopped as she looked in the direction everybody was facing, their eyes the size of saucers. “... _Oh_. _Oh my cog, no…_ ”

The _Déjà vu_ had been strewn to pieces, walls and floors bare of their metal plating. The steam engine and pistons were stripped of their major parts, leaving only bars and frames behind. The entire ship was essentially an empty shell, with only metal frames minimally occupying the space. Everything was _gone_.

Piper felt laden with guilt at the terrible sight. She just _had_ to leave the door opened, didn’t she?

“...Th—they got us, fellas, we’re shipwrecked,” she whimpered, burying her face into Ivanski’s chest. “It’s all my fault, I’m s—so sorry...”

Wonky sighed, “What are you apologizing for _this_ time, Ma’am?”

“I—I left the door open,” Piper explained. “They would never have gotten in if I didn’t… I didn’t think they...”

She let out a sob, and for the first time, Wonky couldn’t quite find the words to say. What _could_ he say? Their ship was just destroyed and now they were stranded. They were all exhausted and injured, and their dear captain was slowly dying.

Things couldn’t get worse, could they?

Beatrix came up to Piper, who was curled up in Ivanski’s strong arms, and placed a hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay. It’s not your fault. You didn’t know they would do this.”

Piper protested, “But I—”

“It doesn’t matter what you did or didn’t do. They’re the ones who decided to ransack our ship.”

Piper seemed disinclined to reply, optics closed as another tear rolled down her cheek.

“Also, the _Déjà vu_ has served us for a very long time, Ma’am,” Wonky added. “Perhaps it’s about time that it lay down its anchor permanently.”

The crew could easily pick up on the sorrow laced through those words—sadly, there was nothing they could do about their ship. With how the Scrappers tore it up, fixing it was impossible. On top of that, the _Déjà vu_ served as their _home_. They couldn’t count how many nights they spent there, bickering, playing, crying, or just enjoying each other’s company. They had made some unforgettable memories here, and to think that now, it wouldn’t serve as the birthplace for any more… it was heartbreaking.

“Blub!”

“What’s that?”

The crew hadn’t even noticed that Billy wandered off—but apparently he did and had now returned with a large sack slung over his shoulder. It appeared to be too heavy for him however, and we was struggling under the load, his knees trembling.

Wonky rushed over to help him, shifting part of the weight into his hold. The crew was starting to run out of empty hands… “Now how in the world did they miss our backup money?” he wondered aloud.

“Blub, blub blub-ub.”

“Yeah, I’m not complaining either.”

After the fall of the Red Queen, the Cowbots had managed to phase out using Gallons as a currency, returning to old-fashioned gold and silver coins. There wasn’t much in circulation, however: the majority of it was still being fished out of the Red Queen’s vaults. Miners had also been sent down to the chunks to find more prime coin-crafting material. It was a bit cumbersome, but at least they weren’t using water – the lifesource for all steambots – as money.

The crew was more than relieved to see their cash wasn’t taken. After all of this was over, they would be able to start over without too much difficulty.

...If they survived this, that is. They just had to!

“C’mon, guys!” Bea said, punching a fist into her palm. “Considering how big this warehouse is, there must be at least one ship docked to it right now. We can steal one and get Captain the help she needs.”

“Right. We can mourn over our ship later,” Wonky said.

Valentine made a quizzical noise. “‘Mourn?’ Over a ship?”

“I loved her, okay?!” said Wonky, nearly hysterical. “She was a good ship that served us long beyond her life expectancy. I loved piloting her… and on top of that, I think Earnest is—”

“The danged plant be right there!” Seabrass moaned, pointing to the shelf where Earnest usually sat. The shelves were wiped clear but the plant remained, unharmed but looking horribly lonely.

“OH THANK GOODNESS!” Wonky exclaimed, running up to the shelf. He snatched Earnest off of it and quickly returned to Billy’s side, using his three free hands to help carry the sack. “Okay, let’s go,” he said eagerly, all the sorrow he possessed less than a minute ago already dissipated.

Disheartened but still hanging on to that shred of hope, the crew reentered the warehouse with a spring in their step.

Piper’s photoreceptors suddenly snapped open, and she started to struggle in Ivanski’s grasp again. “Bogdan, let me down there’s—”

“No, Captain! Relax, we will get out soon,” Ivanski attempted to placate her.

“What be that odd smell in the air?” Seabrass wondered aloud. “Aye, it almost smells like whale blubber...”

True, there was a weird odor wafting through the hall, and while the rest of the crew couldn’t say it smelled like whale blubber, it did smell awfully familiar—yet, they couldn’t quite place what it was… Was this what Piper was so bothered about?

“That’s it,” she sputtered, “It smells like—ack!” The throbbing of her heart stopped her before she could finish and she curled in on herself, taking heaving breaths. “Let—let me _go!_ ” she yelled, arching her back so wildly that Ivanski was startled, his grip on her loosening. Her hat falling off again, Piper fell out of his arms and landed on her back, wincing from pain. “Where’s my gun,” she groaned, trying to sit up.

As the others crowded her, asking what was wrong, Dora finally realized what the smell was and she blurted it out at the same time as Piper:

“ _Diesel!_ ”

It took barely a second later for a Royalist general to emerge from the connecting hall, aiming a rifle at them. “The jig is up, clamps in the air!”

* * *

The crew was as still as stone, empty clamps pointing to the ceiling. They refused to move, afraid that a bullet would fly out of the Royalist’s gun barrel if they moved even a smidgen.

“What are _you_ doing here, on a _Scrapper_ ship?” Fen dared to ask. The rest of the crew was overcome with panic, fearing that they were done for—

But the Royalist just laughed, a haughty, annoying laugh. “I knew you’d ask that, that you’d be wondering why the heck a group as sophisticated as us would be on a such a scrappy ship. My backup is coming and you fogheads are as good as dead anyway, so I _guess_ I’ll entertain you while I wait.”

Looks like Fen managed to buy them some time… for how long, though, and until what happened? They had to think of something before this so-called “backup” arrived...

“We were pulling the strings on this entire operation, you see. We came into contact with a bunch of Scrappers a while ago, and discovered something that we had in common: our leaders were taken out by you steaming lot.” His mouth curved upwards into a wicked smile. “They told us how their Mother could raise parts from the dead with a mysterious power they found. With a bit of sleuthing we discovered that one of you held the key to that power…

“A deal was made: we would locate you and send the Scrappers to take you all. They would revive their Mother, we would revive our Queen, and we would give the Scrappers a bunch of parts from the vaults. You lot would be scrapped and your parts would be integrated into the Scrapper army. It was foolproof...” He shook his head. “Until your sniveling captain over there came and messed it up. What a load of scrap. We were gonna come after her later, after causing discord among you lot by separating you from your captain. We thought it would be easier… How wrong we were.”

He gave them a minute of silence to soak it all in, when a low voice from the middle of the crew spoke up.

“Do you know what you’ve done to us?”

Piper resisted the flamboyant pain in her chest and stood up, her legs shaky as she stepped forward in front of her crew. An urgent look had settled into their eyes as they silently pleaded for her to come back, _please_ come back, you’ll get hurt—

“ _Do you know how much pain you’ve caused us?!_ ” Piper shouted. “I have run myself ragged wondering where my crew was taken. I pushed on searching for them, despite my steam-heart starting to fall apart. It hurts so much I feel like _I am going to explode_ ,” she continued, the fury in her eyes as hot as the flame in her furnace. “And just look at what you’ve done to my crew! They’re injured, they’re hurting! The collective amount of stress we’ve been under is probably enough to squish a whole legion of you _greasy tin cans_.”

Steam was pouring out of her joints like mad, and the crew could easily hear her loud, manic breathing. Her broken heart clacked noisily inside of her chest as she balled her hands into fists and screamed.

“ _You will regret laying your filthy hands on my family!_ ”

Piper charged ahead like a steam train and ran into the Royalist, knocking the gun out of his hands and beating on him, bringing down her tight, shaking fists on his upper body. The Royalist yelled and struggled underneath of her, trying to get out, but her knees kept him pinned down as she landed blow after solid blow.

It didn’t take too long for him to be beaten beyond recognition and to put the cherry on top, Piper stood up, grabbed the Royalist’s gun and shot him in the chest. Smoke rising from the muzzle, Piper held the rifle loosely in her arms, taking heaving breaths as hot tears rolled down her cheeks.

She got him. He got the painful death he deserved.

Piper was so wrapped up in the moment that she didn’t even notice her crew calling out for her, approaching footsteps, or the arrival of Royalist and Scrapper troops.

Bullets started flying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you haven’t figured it out already, Piper’s suffering what is basically the Steambot equivalent of cardiac arrest. The symptoms are obviously different and they don’t die as quickly. I imagine that, when facing an engine shutdown, a Steambot only truly “dies” when their mind shuts down from lack of steam.
> 
> “But doesn’t that happen when they’re scrapped?”
> 
> Yes, but I like to imagine that if a scrapped steambot isn’t rebuilt quickly enough, they’ll die, because the mind went too long without steam. So they literally “rest in pieces.”
> 
> ...I know, I’m terrible, and I’m gonna stop rambling now. See you next week!


	8. The Cold Wind Blows

Piper had already been shot multiple times, and she fell to the floor, shuddering.

Fen let out a cry of despair, calling out for her as bolts bounced around their body. They shut their eyes tightly, flew in front of Piper and—

A translucent blue barrier had formed, shielding her from further bullets.

“Guys, come get her, quick! I can’t hold this for very long!”

So much happened within those few minutes of chaos.

Ivanski ran over to Piper and hefted her over his shoulder, running for cover behind a pile of scraps. Payroll dug up a grenade from his bags and passed it to Beatrix, who swiftly pulled the pin out and tossed it into the forces. Fen dropped their crystal shield and retreated.

The whole crew took advantage of the resulting explosion and hid behind whatever obstacles they could get to in time, preparing themselves for a counterattack.

The Scrappers and Royalists that survived the explosion stopped their barrage, confused by the gang’s disappearance. They slowly advanced, aiming their weapons in random directions.

With a loud “Now!” gunshots rang out in the air again as Piper’s crew unleashed their own onslaught of bullets. Ivanski and Billy dived right into the middle of the carnage, taking out as many as they could with some well-timed punches and headbutts. Some of the Royalists and Scrappers started to fall back, and Valentine and Dora used their long-range weapons to shoot at them, but they weren’t able to fell them all.

Soon enough all was quiet again, and the crew regrouped behind a pile of barrels to discuss further plans.

“That took a lot longer than I was anticipating. Are you guys all right?” Wonky asked.

They had gotten away with a few holes and scratches, but nothing to write home about, thankfully. Piper, on the other hand…

Their poor captain was rendered helpless once again, shivering on the floor, completely silent other than her labored breathing. Wonky was placed in charge of watching her while the combat was taking place—the fact that she seemed barely responsive to his gentle touch terrified him. Piper was totally out of it, and Wonky couldn’t even begin to imagine the amount of pain she was in right now.

“We _have_ to get out of here,” said Fen.

“That’s what we’ve been tryin’ ta do this whole time!” Sally said indignantly.

Dora nodded in agreement. “We probably would have been gone already if it weren’t for all those troglodytes.”

Payroll was idly sifting through his bags of loot, whistling a catchy tune.

“Payroll, is it _really_ necessary to do that right now?” Valentine said.

“Yes!” said Payroll, “Because _these_ will do a lot to help us.” To everyone’s surprise, he pulled out a small Vectron pistol. The gun was humming with energy and glowed a lovely shade of dark blue. “They must have stolen our weapons when they totaled our ship. It’s a good thing we took our stuff back!”

“Huh. I only thought it were scraps in those bags,” Seabrass mumbled. He tapped his chin with his hook in thought, then shrugged and held out his hands. “Toss it here.”

He wasn’t expecting to get hit in the face again. His eyes burned with anger. “Ye got some kind of grudge against me?!” He shrieked, steam shooting angrily out of his pipe.

“It’s not on purpose, I swear!”

Detecting movement out of the corner of his eye, Wonky looked down to see Piper shifting uneasily, trying to prop herself up on her elbows. “Boys… stop...” she got out, her voice barely above a whisper. Wonky was initially confused, trying to make her settle down, until he put two and two together:

Even with her body shutting down on her, Piper was still trying to express her leadership. She was still trying to hold them together, to keep the peace. That maternal instinct of hers was still there, driving her to take care of her crew, to stop them from descending into a full-blown argument at the worst of times. It wrenched Wonky’s heart to see her like this, so desperate to help but incapable of doing so due to her own broken heart.

Eventually Beatrix was able to dissolve the tension between the two, and Payroll proceeded to filter through all of the bags and find their weapons. Not all of them were there, sadly, but what they had was sufficient enough for the next wave of enemies they were sure to encounter. With the boosted power of Vectron weaponry, taking out Royalists and Scrappers would be a lot easier.

Speaking of Royalists and Scrappers…

“Come on out with your clamps up, you misty minds!”

“‘Misty minds’? Really? You couldn’t come up with anything better?”

“Quiet, Steve!”

The crew didn’t even need to say a word to each other to communicate that they were ready, a sense of determination in the way their optics shone.

As they stood up, waiting for the perfect moment to spring out, Wonky felt a gentle tug on his arm. He looked down and was shocked to see the most desperate look in Piper’s eyes, her hand shaking as she clung on to him, having so much trouble doing just _that_.

“D—don’t go,” she croaked out. “Please. I don’t want to—I don’t want to be alone again.”

It was at that moment Wonky finally realized just how much she had gone through, and it broke his heart _even_ _more_. To think this whole predicament broke her to the point that she was terrified of being alone… Would that brave, stoic captain they knew ever be the same after this?

He knelt down, squeezing her hand and placing another on her cheek, wiping away a stray tear. “I’m— _we’re_ here,” he corrected himself. “We’re not going to leave you. I promise.”

Piper leaned into his touch and closed her eyes, letting out a shaky sigh. Wonky had noticed her movements were becoming much slower and more lethargic, indicating that she was starting to get paralyzed: which meant that yes, her heart was indeed broken, steam not flowing properly through her system. Feeling her chest, he could also infer that she was overheating, the metal searing hot to the touch.

He didn’t need to turn around to tell that eyes were on him. “We don’t have much time left. Take them out as swiftly as you can.”

The solemn tone in his voice was all they needed to figure out the gravity of the situation.

They all exchanged looks, as if to confirm once again that they were good, that they were ready—and then Beatrix held three fingers up, putting them down one by one as she mouthed “Three, two, one...”

They all burst out from behind the barrels and fired at the hoards with all they had, bursts of electricity tearing holes into the enemy’s bodies and lasers blasting through them like a tornado. Everyone contributed in their own unique way: Valentine took an odd spot to bounce some shots off the wall, pulling off a few impressive trickshots. Payroll sped past the crowd while they were distracted and shot some ‘bots in the back, and even Fen was able to get in on the action: just as they did with Piper earlier, they occasionally dove into their crewmates’ furnaces and gave them a taste of what they decided to call “Supercharge”. Everyone appreciated their efforts, and with some well-managed teamwork, they all took down each and every Scrapper and Royalist within ten minutes (Making note during that time that the two didn’t mix together well).

When they were sure there weren’t anymore enemies to deal with, the crew returned to where their supplies were waiting behind the stack of barrels, along with Piper and Wonky. “How’s Cap’n farin’?” Seabrass asked, his voice rich with concern—which sounded unusual out of him, but was justified considering the situation.

“Not good.” Wonky brushed a hand against her middle. “She’s way too warm. I think she’s delirious.”

Piper was holding his hand in a death grip as she curled in on herself, claw hand nearly digging into her chest, as if she was trying to tear her very heart out of herself. Wonky was trying his best to help her, stopping her from damaging herself further, quietly speaking to her—but none of his attempts seemed to get through. Piper probably wasn’t even aware of her surroundings, Wonky’s hand in her own the only thing keeping her connected.

Ivanski came up to them and knelt down, arms in a position ready to hoist her up—but then he stopped abruptly, and looked to Wonky as if he was asking him permission to pick her up.

“Be gentle, Bogdan. Please. I don’t know how much more she can take.”

The strongbot easily heard the earnestness in his words and took them to heart, carefully slipping his clamps underneath Piper’s knees and neck.

Sensing the movement, Piper started to struggle. It was restrained and weak since she was paralyzed, but it still startled the two of them and Ivanski quickly had to resituate himself to not drop her. “Shh, shh shh, it’s okay, it’s okay,” Wonky tried to soothe her, “I’m right here, we’re not leaving...”

Piper refused to let Wonky’s hand go through all of it.

It hurt the crew to see her like this: she appeared so small, so frail in Ivanski’s arms. Nothing like the proud bravado she boasted during her daily captain duties.

Wonky sighed and reached down and picked Earnest back up. “Seabrass, can you help Billy with that bag there? Piper doesn’t seem to be ready to let go of me yet...” Piper seemed to be on the verge of a mental breakdown on top of all the other issues, so Wonky wanted to do whatever he could to prevent that.

No gesture was too small, no act of kindness so useless.

Seabrass complied without protest—even he seemed too tired to complain at this point. They were pushing themselves to their limits; their limbs ached deeply and their minds were hazy with exhaustion. If they encountered another wave of enemies, they weren’t sure they’d be able to get out in one piece…

The rest of the gang proceeded to gather their meager resources and when all was ready again, they marched on through the ocean of metal limbs, footsteps odd and unsteady.

Shoulders brushing against shoulders, hand holding shaking hand.

“You’re doing great, Piper. Stay with us.”

* * *

An opening door surprised them into stopping.

An unfamiliar and odd but otherwise very _real_ steambot was on the other side, and in that moment they were never so glad as they were to see her.

“Are you Piper Faraday’s crew?” she asked, pulling a pair of shades off of her face. She seemed quite astonished at the site of the troupe, optics clicking repeatedly.

“Yes!” Fen said without thinking. “Are you here to save us?”

“I’ve been sent to find Piper, but it seems you’ve done the job for me. I’m sure the pilot won’t mind a few extra passengers.” She smiled warmly. “There’s a repairbot on board; if you would come thi—”

“Now hang on jus’ a minute,” Sally interrupted. “How can we trust yer not some kinda Scrapper in disguise? Or worse, a Royalist?”

“Sally, please, we need to _go,_ ” Payroll moaned. “She looks completely fine to me—”

“Ah’m not lettin’ any of y’all on that ship until Ah’m sure there’s not a single drop of grease in it!”

“We’ve got a steamdog aboard that hates Royalists, and dieselbots in general,” the girl said. She looked to the side and spoke to someone out of view. “Don’t you, Spicket? You don’t like those smelly greasebuckets, do you?”

A loud bark sounded from inside, followed by the noisy pitter-patter of a steamdog’s padded paws skittering across the floor. A small, copper-colored dog screeched to a halt at her feet and sat down. Noticing the new arrivals, he tilted his head in curiosity, raising one of it’s ears.

“Ya got a steamdog on board?! Why didn’t ya tell me earlier?!” Sally exclaimed, mouth agape.

Frowning in confusion, the girl said, “Because there’s more pressing… matters… at hand?”

Sally wasn’t even listening anymore; she was already in the ship, down on her knees as she massaged the puppy’s head. The dog was reveling in the attention he was getting, wagging his tail – and his entire body, to an extent – in excitement.

The girl sighed and silently motioned for the rest of them to come in, which they did without any hesitation. They all – with the exception of Ivanski – dropped their heavy loads by the door. Even still Sally didn’t seem to notice their entrance, too distracted by the adorable tiny bundle squirming in her arms. The girl shut the door. “Name’s Lucy, by the way. Pleased to make your acquaintance. If you would bring the captain this way...”

Her high heels clicking loudly against the steel floor, she led the crew – who refused to leave their captain alone – through a long, winding hallway. “Dr. Armstrong may seem a bit intimidating, but trust me—he is a good man and an even better repairbot. He only charges people for cosmetic procedures, in fact! He did a good job on Piper when he was called in to see her a few days ago.”

“He’s fixed her before?” Valentine said.

Lucy nodded. “He patched up some bullet holes. Silver-plated lead ammo, got her real deep, they did...”

“Sounds like the Royalists lent those Scrappers some ammunition,” Wonky said. “Scrapper-grade bullets aren’t hard enough to penetrate a ‘bot’s metal like that.”

“You mean to tell me the two groups we hate the _hydraulics_ out of teamed up?” Lucy said, a look of disbelief on her face.

“One of them spilled their whole plan to us! But it’s a long story. We can tell you later,” said Fen.

“And what are you supposed to be, cutie? You look like one of those will-o-wisps from my mother’s fairy tales.”

“Hey, I’m not—”

“It took you long enough, Lucy! Get her on the table, quickly!” yelled a deep voice.

A large, stern-looking steambot wearing a white coat stood behind an operating table, arms crossed and a wrench clutched in his right hand.

“I’m so sorry, Dr. Armstrong,” Lucy said. “We ran into a bit of an obstacle back there, and now we’ve got a few extra passengers on board—”

“I don’t care how many people are on this coggarn ship, just get the ‘bot on the table!”

Before Lucy could apologize again Ivanski nearly elbowed her out of the way and gingerly lowered Piper onto the table. Poor Piper was barely aware of anything happening around her, letting out a weak moan as she was laid down. Anxiety practically flowing through their pipes, the whole crew had crowded around the table, wondering if their troubled captain would make it out okay.

“Back up, I need _space_ to work!” Dr. Armstrong snapped at them, and, too nervous to argue, the team backed away from the table to let the repairbot do his magic.

He had started to fiddle with a large machine in the corner of the room. Another steambot with purple hair was fluttering around Piper like a butterfly, poking and prodding at her with various tools. “Vitals, Amanda?” Dr. Armstrong asked.

“Boiler at thirty percent, no pulse from the engine, bellows seem strained. There’s a large amount of steam pressure built up inside of her and she’s starting to leak...”

“Her temperature?”

“Her internal temperature is high, but her head...” Amanda was clearly hesitant to get the next part out. “Her head is cold, Doctor.”

“Just as I feared,” he sighed, kicking the machine. “C’mon, start u—there we go.” The contraption finally came to life with a jolt, gears attached to the side swirling madly as pipes coming out of the top jetted out steam. “Get her head opened quickly; we’re gonna have to stick a tube in there.”

Amanda ducked beneath the table, appearing to be looking for something. A loud clatter echoed through the eerily silent room, and then she appeared again, this time with a screwdriver. Searching for a screw on Piper’s head, she found one right near her hairline and started loosening it.

Dr. Armstrong had started pulling a long plastic tube out of the machine. “Lucy?”

“Yes, Doctor?”

“I’m going to need you to clear these folks out of the room…”

“We aren’t going anywhere!” Fen protested, sparks hopping about their body angrily.

Dr. Armstrong shook his head. “I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to leave. Having a bunch of steambots in here while she’s opened up runs a lot of risks I don’t want to take. Not to mention the… cloud you guys made over there.”

They were all so worried about Piper they didn’t even notice the amount of steam they were expelling. A rather thick cloud had formed at the ceiling overhead and if one didn’t know any better, they could say it was a rain cloud. It was quite a testament to their current mental state…

“Maybe it _is_ better for us to not be in here,” Beatrix realized. “For our own sake, if not Captain’s.”

Fen still seemed objected to the idea, but one stern look from Wonky was enough to convince them to roll with it for now. “I don’t like that we’re not gonna be with her,” said Fen. “What if something happens and we’re not there to help her?!”

“She’s in good hands, little one,” Amanda assured Fen.

“I’m _not_ —”

“Waiting room’s this way,” said Lucy, encouraging them forward with a wave of her hand.

With sluggish movements, they started to file out of the room and then Lucy shut the door behind them.

Fen sighed and floated forward quickly. Even though they were out of their shell, Wonky was able to sense their apprehension.

“It’ll be okay, Fen. She’ll get a nice nap and her heart will get fixed.”

“But… You sure she’ll be okay?”

“As sure as the Core glows.”

* * *

Everything was dark and blurry; Piper felt as if she was floating. Voices echoed faintly in the sea of noise around her, drilling into her pounding head. It made her want to lift her hands to cover her auditors, but her arms felt like lead and she couldn’t get them to listen to her command no matter how hard she tried.

Piper knew she was still in the bad place but she was gonna be okay. Her crew was gonna get her out of there. Those gentle clamps she tightly held on to assured her of that.

Minutes felt like hours. The voices continued to ring through the fuzziness but then there was a loud one and—

_No the clamps are gone where are they? Where did they go no—_

The floating sensation went away and Piper became aware that she was on a freezing cold surface. It was much too overbearing for her and she without anything to ground her she started to descend into panic.

_Her crew had thought that she wasn’t worth saving didn’t they, now she’s been left for dead. Any minute now those Scrappers would snatch her up—_

She tried calling, reaching out, but her body was dead weight.

“No I won’t be a burden, I promise I’ll be a better captain from now own! Please, don’t leave! _Don’t leave!_ ”

She wasn’t sure if she had really said those words out loud but her burning throat sure made it feel like she did.

Everything hurt, it was too cold, why was she so cold? All of a sudden she felt… awfully sleepy…

Something’s on her shoulders. The Scrappers are here and they’re going to scrap her. What’s that tingling sensation in her head? Someone’s touching her face.

She can’t see. She can’t hear. She felt so tired…

_So, so tired…_

* * *

Sally had fallen asleep by the time they came back, the puppy – which had also fallen asleep – splayed out in a slightly awkward position as she hugged the animal to her chassis. “Yikes, that doesn’t look comfortable for either of them,” Dora commented. Quietly approaching them, she said, “Maybe I should—”

Wonky put a hand on her shoulder, stopping her.“Leave her be, Dora. The poor girl needs to rest after all of this.”

“...Yeah, you’re right.” Dora tapped her foot on the floor, crossing her arms. “...Now what do we do? Where’s this ship taking us, anyway?”

Lucy clapped her hands together. “We are going to an outpost closer to The Core to restock on supplies. Perhaps you will find something of use there as well?”

“Hmm. Maybe.”

“Oh, how rude of me, I haven’t offered any of you water yet! You poor dears look exhausted, you _must_ need it.”

“It would be appreciated, thanks,” said Seabrass. The rest of the crew couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic or not, which was a first. Either he was sarcastic or he wasn’t, with not a fine line in between...

Regardless, Lucy didn’t seem to pick up on it and left the room, the _click-clack_ of her heels against the floor gradually fading until the only sound in the room was Sally’s quiet snoring.

Despite still being anxious about their captain’s condition, now that they were out of harm’s way, the better part of the crew could finally find themselves relaxing, sitting against the wall as the minutes ticked by. They were situated in quite a cozy little room, too, with multiple plants placed in the corners and a huge, fuzzy carpet covering a large portion of the floor. It was minimally decorated, cheap knick-knacks hanging on the walls—nothing that was too distracting, at least. It all reminded them of home in a warm, cozy way.

But now… they had a home no longer. Where would they go from here, what would they do?

Those questions would be answered later. For now, they rest.

* * *

Lucy returned a few minutes later with a cart of water and was immediately hounded by the thirsty steambots. Both she and Wonky managed to keep the rest of them in line while she handed out the bottles, which were almost instantly emptied. They all had seconds, some of them thirds. Lucy actually had to come back with a second cart to quench their insatiable thirst.

Soon enough they were satisfied, Laying on the floor in various spots in the room, sleep heavy in their eyes. “I don’t know how Piper does it,” Wonky said. “It’s like babysitting a bunch of children.”

“Stubbornness?” Fen guessed. Wonky just shrugged.

They were silent for another minute, watching the tired bunch splayed out on the floor, before Fen spoke up again. “Wonky, when that Royalist started telling their plan to us, and Piper lashed out at him… I wasn’t imagining what she was saying, was I?”

“‘You’ll regret laying your filthy hands on my family’?”

“Yeah, that… did she just call us ‘family’?”

Wonky looked to the floor, the gears in his head clearly turning as he processed this. “…I suppose she did. She told me her parents died when she was young and that she has no extended family that she knows of, so… there’s no one else but us that she could have been talking about.”

“But… we’re not directly related to her. We’re not exactly her family...”

Wonky sat down against the wall, crossing his legs. “It might be hard to understand, but… friends can be family too. When you’ve grown so close with someone, to the point that you can’t imagine living without them… they’ve essentially become your family. Especially if they feel the same way.” Wonky looked at Fen. “Can you imagine living without Piper?”

Fen was terrified at the thought. “What? No, I… I guess I can’t. I… I love her. She’s… she’s been so kind to me. Much kinder than Vectron. I don’t know what I’d do without her.”

Wonky nodded. “She feels the same way, Fen. She feels like that for all of us. It only took a kidnapping and her heart breaking for her to admit that.”

Fen snorted at that. “Ha, it figures.”

“Well now, when did this little gaggle get here?”

The voice had an odd, light accent, and Wonky could see why. The steambot that had just stepped into the room wore extremely colorful fabrics and was cradling an exotic instrument in her clamps. She strung a chord on the strings and flashed a smile at them. “I was told the ship was gunna pick up an extra passenger, but I didn’t expect a whole troupe of ‘em!”

“Who are you?” asked Fen.

“I would ask you,” she said, pointing at Fen, “But I have a gut feelin’ the answer will be long and complicated. Me, I’m just a travelin’ musician in search of inspiration,” she continued, strumming a gentle melody on the instrument. “You could say I’m like a modern day bard. The name’s Rhodia.”

“Nice to meet you, Ma’am. I’m Wonky and this is Fen. We’re part of Piper Faraday’s crew.” Wonky stood up to greet her, holding his hand out for her to shake. It wasn’t taken.

“Wait. _The Piper Faraday_ , the one who took down the Scrappers, the Royal Space Force _and_ Vectron?! Dude, I’m a huge fan of you guys! I even wrote a song about your heroic deeds.” She flexed her clamps and strummed a dramatic chord on her instrument, clearing her throat. “ _Once there was—_ ”

“We’d love to hear it Miss Rhodia, but perhaps another time. We’re all exhausted and would like to rest,” Wonky interjected. Looks like he dodged a bullet there, she was singing loudly and something told him he would’ve been in for a long tune…

Rhodia looked dejected, but quickly brushed it off. “Okay, later then.” She turned the knobs at the head of her instrument. “Perhaps you would like a lullaby instead, to lure all of you off to the land of dreams?”

“If it will make you stop pestering us,” said Fen, who immediately received a look of disapproval from Wonky.

“Fen!” he said. “Excuse my friend, they seem to have some alternate personality I wasn’t aware they possessed. Now, Ma’am, I have some questions for you, if you don’t mind...”

“Ask away!” Rhodia said, completely unaffected by Fen’s comment.

“How did you hear about us?”

“I’m a traveling songstress; I go to all kinds of places in search of inspiration. I’ve been to plenty of bars before. I heard about your deeds at Gat’s bar right here in the Outskirts and was really inspired. I can’t believe you folks had the guts to stand up to all those troublemakers.”

“Well, you have Piper to thank for that,” Wonky said. “It was her idea in the first place. She eventually rounded up everyone here,” he gestured to the sleepy ‘bots strewn across the floor, “and led them on to victory.”

“What about you? She didn’t lead you?”

“I’m only her pilot,” said Wonky. “I have no experience on the battlefield.”

“Oh… Hey, where is Piper? She isn’t with you, is she?” Rhodia observed.

“She’s in surgery,” said Wonky, looking downcast. “She got her heart damaged badly. I don’t know much beyond that...”

“Oh heavens, that’s awful… Hope she comes out okay.”

Wonky nodded. “Me too. By the way, what are you doing on a medical ship? Are you waiting for someone too?”

“Oh, no. I just needed transfer to an outpost by The Core, and I happened to hear that this one was going there. No one was against having me on board, so here I am!”

 _I’m surprised_ , Wonky thought, looking at her. She was quite the character, bouncing excitedly on the balls of her heels and lightly drumming a rhythm on the wood of her instrument. Not to mention chatty—it was a wonder she somehow hadn’t annoyed anyone into kicking her off the ship yet.

“Any more questions?” Rhodia asked, stars in her eyes.

“Yes, one more, in fact...” he smiled as the girl shivered in anticipation, tightly gripping the neck of her instrument. “Would you sing us that lullaby now, please?”

Rhodia seemed surprised. “Oh, of course!” She started tuning the instrument again as Wonky went to sit down at the wall. Fen settled into his lap, poofing themselves out as they relaxed.

“I didn’t write this one,” Rhodia admitted. She hopped onto a table in the middle of the room so everyone could hear her—she smiled as she took notice of some of the ‘bots sitting up. Whether they were curious about her arrival, the ongoing conversation or the song she was about to sing, she didn’t care: she was just happy to have an audience. “My teacher taught it to me when I was young. It’s based off of a pretty popular fairy tale, so you might recognize it...”

Crossed legs dangling over the edge of the table, she plucked the strings to produce a simple, yet enchanting melody. Then, she sang, her voice soothing and full of emotion.

“ _Red the heart and blue the mind..._ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As we approach the end, chapters, starting with this one, will be quite a bit longer so everybody can tie up loose ends. They’ve got a lot on their mind and a lot to say. Just a head’s up!
> 
> Also, I've got a little announcement to make: this fic will be going on hiatus, hopefully for not too long. The ending has been quite an obstacle to write but I've recently figured out a way to make it work out. I want to make sure you guys have a satisfying, well polished story.
> 
> Who knows, maybe I'll have a burst of inspiration and you will get the next chapter at the normal time. Just keep an eye on my Tumblr I guess. I'll post status updates there...


	9. My Restless Heart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am extremely nervous to post this because
> 
> 1) it's the freaking longest chapter of the fic  
> 2) This chapter and the next one are among the most emotionally heavy things I've written so far
> 
> oh man um... enjoy? oh god I'm a nervous wreck right now help

The anxiousness Piper’s crew harbored was not enough to stave off their exhaustion: all of the stress, the lack of sleep for the past few days, and, to an extent, Rhodia’s lullaby—it all tuckered them out to the point where they were all passed out on the floor at once. The amount of time spent dozing varied from ‘bot to ‘bot, but they all at least had a few hours of sleep before tired optics were opened again.

Valentine had woken up first, followed by Fen and Seabrass. To suppress his antsy urge to brush everything up with his chimney sweeper hand, Valentine decided to rattle off puns to an increasingly annoyed Seabrass.

“...And then when that Royalist ran off, I heard him shout, ‘By the grease of cog!’”

The pirate gave him a death glare. Valentine didn’t seem to notice.

“Nothing my gun couldn’t handle, of course. All’s fire in love and war, in the grand steam of things.”

“Gyarrh, stop it, will ye?!” Seabrass hollered, steam angrily hissing out of every nook and cranny that could be found on him. “Ten minutes of my life I’ll never get back...”

Valentine shrugged, “Well what else am I supposed to do?”

“How are you guys awake?” said a muffled voice.

They turned to see a very grumpy and a very tired Dora glowering at them from the floor. The two ‘bots were clueless as to how to answer her question, looking at each other in awkward silence. Seeing this, Dora mumbled, “If you two are going to be awake, can you at least keep it down? Please?”

“Of course!” said Valentine, his cheery demeanor seemingly unaffected. “As long as ol’ Seabrass doesn’t steam his head off over here.”

“I’LL STEAM YER HEAD OFF!”

Fen giggled, “I think you misunderstood that one...”

Just as Seabrass was about to retort again, he was interrupted by the familiar sound of clicking high-heels. Lucy entered the room, a frantic sort of air surrounding her. Seabrass instantly calmed down, adopting a look of concern. “Aye, is everything all right? How’s Cap’n?”

“Oh, Piper? She’s doing amazing. Dr. Armstrong estimates she’ll be under for just one more hour. It looks like she’ll pull through.”

“Thank goodness!” said Fen.

Seabrass frowned. “Then why do ye look so…?”

“I heard screaming. Did something happen?”

Realizing what she was talking about, Seabrass looked to the side in embarrassment—wrong side, Dora was on that side and she was glaring daggers at him. “Oh, that was just Seabrass,” Valentine explained casually. “He can’t take a little _pun_ ishment, it seems.”

Lucy didn’t appear to get the joke, beads of condensation visibly forming on her forehead. “I, uh… I have to do something in the other room. We’ll be arriving at the outpost soon, so be ready!” And just like that, she ran out of the room, so flustered that she nearly tripped over her own feet.

“...Was that one _really_ that terrible?” Valentine asked.

“Yes. They all were.”

“Um… ‘scuse me?”

Rhodia was back, and she was taking care not to step on any of the sleeping ‘bots on the floor—she looked ridiculous trying to maneuver around them, legs stretched at odd angles. Eventually she found her way over to the trio, a starstruck glint in her optics.

“Oh, it’s you… what do ye want?”

Practically vibrating with excitement, Rhodia did a little hop on her toes and eagerly asked, “Could you tell me what happened that led you guys onto a big Scrapper warehouse like that, Mr. Stubb?! I’m sure it must be an epic tale to behold!”

“‘Epic’? Hah, it was more terrifying than epic, lass.”

“Well duh, of course it was. In any epic tale, the heroes are always scared at some point. If you say it was terrifying, then it _must_ be an amazing story!”

Seabrass sighed, then jumped as Valentine slapped his shoulders with a surprising amount of force. “C’mon, Seabrass, entertain the poor girl! She’s in need of some inspiration!” Valentine proceeded to sit down in front of him and watch in anticipation—and Seabrass swore, Val looked just as excited as Rhodia to hear whatever had happened.

“Ye were there too, why can’t ye tell her?!”

“Because you’re the best at telling stories, Seabrass!” Fen said. They floated down and settled next to Valentine, bristling with that same energy and eagerness.

Seabrass sighed; he _really_ wasn’t in the mood to do this… but if it would keep Valentine and his puns out of his non-existent hair, he might as well do it.

He remembered with a fond smile the countless nights he spent telling bedtime stories to his son, Urchin—that look of wonderment in his optics could now be seen in that of the ‘bots before him.

Clearing his throat, Seabrass recounted to them how this whole spectacle began, starting with the night they had been taken away from their poor captain.

* * *

Seabrass’s enamoring narration inevitably attracted the others’ attention, sleepy ‘bots gradually getting up and joining the mini semicircle that had formed around him. They all trembled in delight as he recalled the escape from the cell, the discovery of Fen and eventually Piper. He told of the way they fought through the Scrapper hordes, how they came to find out their ship was destroyed. When he got to the part where the were cornered by the Royalist, and spoke of their malicious plan the Royalists cooked up with the Scrappers, Beatrix mentioned how stupid the plan was, and the rest of them realized, she was right.

The Royalists having faith that the Scrappers would keep a hold of them was dumb enough. Have they even seen how cheap the Scrappers are? Not to mention they had more than a few screws loose: releasing their prisoners from their bonds was an incredibly foolish move. What were they even thinking at that time?!

By the end of it, delighted childish grins were on each and everyone’s face. Rhodia, who could barely sit still the entire time leaped to her feet and yelled, “THAT. WAS. AMAZING!” Jumping up and down in excitement, she raced to a table at the end of the room and grabbed an ample stack of papers off of it, scattered them carelessly on the floor and pulled out a pen from her pocket. “Oh, the inspiration is flowing through my pipes! I can feel a song coming on and it’s a good one, too!” She flopped onto her tummy and started scribbling away.

Seabrass sighed in relief. “That should keep her busy for a while. Now—”

“AND THEY RACED THROUGH THE HALL, READY TO… no, that’s not it...”

“Holy scrap, that girl’s got a good set of pipes!” Payroll said.

Just then they heard a moan from the other end of the room, followed by, “Who the heck is singin’ and how soon can I punch them in the face?”

Sally had finally woken up—although she looked terribly miserable, rubbing tiredly at her optics. “Is Boss okay?” She gently nudged Spicket, who was still snoozing, off of her lap. The pup kicked his legs a bit but otherwise didn’t stir.

Ignoring her first question, Wonky said, “We’ve been told that she’ll pull through...”

Sally looked like a huge weight was just lifted off her shoulders, her entire body relaxing. “Thank cog,” she said, her voice shaky. She raised a hand to her face, looking to the floor. The poor dear looked like she was about to cry...

“Sally… are you okay?”

“I was so scared!” she cried, covering her eyes. Wonky chuckled a bit and walked over, kneeling down beside her and rubbing circles on her back.

“I know, we all were,” Wonky assured her. “To think that we nearly lost our Captain… She never would’ve made it if we didn’t work together.” She looked up at him, and he gave her a warm smile. “You did great. Everybody did.” Wonky gave her a pat on the back, and through her tears, Sally managed a bashful grin.

“Hey, um...”

All eyes in the room turned to the voice—Lucy’s voice, to be precise. She had a rather pleasant look on her face compared to the flighty expression she last left with. Wonky got up and turned to her, Sally and the rest crowding behind him. “How’s our captain?” Wonky asked on behalf of everyone.

“The mechanic just closed her back up. You can come and see her now, if you’d like.”

* * *

“Easy with her legs, Amanda, that’s it… did you get that paint out like I asked you to?”

“I couldn’t find a proper shade of green for her middle...”

“Well, we’re going to the outpost anyway, we can get it there… Oh. Hello there.”

Dr. Armstrong and Amanda paused in their task of transferring Piper to a bed, seeing that their patient was awake. She slowly blinked and tried to focus on the face hovering over her.

Her optics grew three times their original size. Piper made a strangled cry of panic and started thrashing about in their hold, forcing them to tighten their grip. “Hey hey hey, you’re okay! You’re safe...”

That seemed to compose her, if only a little, as she stopped squirming and took heaving breaths, looking up at him. She was very clearly disoriented and confused. “That’s it… Okay, let’s get you into bed now...” He nodded at Amanda and they carried Piper over to a wide bed, built into the wall right next to the window. Dr. Armstrong always believed his patients deserved a nice view to wake up to.

He let go of Piper with one hand to pull the covers back, then he and Amanda carefully set her down, making sure her head was lying on the pillow. Amanda pulled the blankets over her and smoothed them out, while the repairbot knelt down beside her. Piper opened her mouth to say something, but all she could get out was a hoarse whimper. She put her hands to her throat, faceplates twisted in confusion.

“We had to cut off steam to certain systems in order to lessen the chance of further injury. We only just reopened the valves to your voice box before closing you up. Give it a minute or so for the steam to get up there.”

Piper shook her head and opened her mouth again, but still couldn’t get anything out. She seemed awfully upset about something…

“Oh!” Amanda slipped away for a second and Piper heard some rustling coming from across the room. The nurse came back with a pencil and a paper, and she pulled the nearby nightstand closer to the bed so she could place the page within Piper’s reach. Piper immediately grabbed the pencil and started scribbling, her hand shaking a little as she wrote.

“ _Where’s my crew?_ ” Her handwriting was way too sloppy for her standards but she just woke up from surgery; she didn’t really care right now.

“They’re out in the front waiting for you, sweetie; you want us to get them for you?

“ _Yes please. And don’t call me that._ ”

Both the repairbot and Amanda chuckled as the latter left to fetch Lucy. Dr. Armstrong shuffled a little closer to Piper. “I’m just gonna check a few things, okay? Tap my shoulder or something if it hurts.”

He proceeded to do a standard checkup with her, checking her reflexes, optics, bellows, and, of course, her steam-heart. It was still a bit rattled by trauma but it was now at least working. He would have to keep Piper for at least a day to keep an eye on her.

She also desperately needed a paint job; the buffed metal patches still lacking color, oil stains streaking her body…

And, most glaringly, the tear stains trailing down her face. Dr. Armstrong knew better than to ask, but… from what he could tell, she seemed so stoic. Then again, he knew from his past patients that getting your steam-heart broken was a very traumatic experience.

Regardless, he wasn’t going to press her; he had a code to follow.

Amanda returned with a bottle of water, which she opened and held out to Piper. Seeing this her optics widened and she snatched the bottle out of her hands, greedily gulping it down like she didn’t have anything to drink in forever.

“Not too fast; you’ll make yourself sick!”

Piper gave them a miserable glare but listened anyway, taking a break. Actually, it might have been a good thing she did that, her head was starting to spin…

She set the bottle aside and laid back down, rubbing her forehead. It was only just now that she realized how awful she felt; her entire body was sore and she felt exhausted.

A few minutes later saw the return of Piper’s voice, but it was terribly hoarse and it hurt her throat when she tried to speak. “Give it some time to get going; it won’t work properly right away,” the repairbot told her. He could tell Piper was already getting impatient; she clearly did not appreciate being stuck in a bed again. Unfortunately she had a long road of recovery ahead of her…

Next came the loud footsteps echoing out of the nearby hallway. “Here come your friends, miss...”

Piper groaned and propped herself up with an elbow, bracing herself to get tackled or crushed in a hug (perhaps both).

“Woah, woah! Hold your steam horses!”

Cracking open an optic, Piper was surprised to see Dr. Armstrong standing protectively in front of her, his arms held out beside him. He glanced back and winked at her before addressing the group again. “I know you’re eager to see your friend, but she’s still in a lot of pain right now, so I need you to be gentle with her. Do you think you can do that for me?”

Piper could see her crew shuffling around anxiously, nodding their heads even though they didn’t look like they were paying attention. They were all focused on her; Piper couldn’t blame them. She probably scared them all to death...

The second Dr. Armstrong lowered his arms and stepped aside, the entire crew crowded around the bed, eager voices overlapping and overwhelming her. Piper sighed and rubbed her forehead. “One at a time please; I’ve got a headache...”

“How are you feeling, Captain?” asked Fen.

“Like I got trampled by a bunch of steamcows...”

“Boss!”

In the matter of a few seconds, Sally managed to wedge her way through the small crowd and crushed Piper in a tight hug. “Don’t scare us like that again; we were so worried!”

Even though she felt as if all the steam was getting squeezed out of her Piper wrapped her arms around Sally, rubbing her back. “I—I’m okay now,” she choked out. She was their Captain; she had to take care of them no matter how scrappy she felt!

“ _Ma’am,_ please let go of my patient.”

Scared silly by Dr. Armstrong’s stern tone of voice, Sally listened and let go—not expecting her to leave the hug so quickly, Piper lost her balance and would’ve crashed to the floor if the repairbot didn’t run in to catch her. After helping her back into bed and making sure she was okay, he turned around and faced the crew with a stern expression. “Not only is she in pain right now, her heart was put under a lot of trauma. Until it recovers properly there is a heightened chance of it being damaged again or even stopping.” He rose from his kneeling position and crossed his arms. “Please try to not put Captain Piper under any unnecessary stress. I will be keeping her here for a few days to keep an eye on her but she will need at least two weeks to fully recover.”

“Two weeks?!” Piper groaned, wilting like a plant. “Oh come on...”

“It’s probably for the best, Ma’am,” Wonky pointed out. “We don’t want you getting hurt again… Speaking of which, I’m curious. Doctor, you worked on her a few nights ago, correct?”

“That is true.”

“What exactly happened to Piper’s heart for it to break?”

“When she was shot a few days ago, one of those bullets hit a cog in her heart. It got brittle enough that a good whack would be more than sufficient to shatter it.” He reached into a pocket in his coat and pulled out a handful of tiny metal pieces. Curious, Piper leaned forward and observed them, part of the crew surrounding his hand as well. “When it broke, it clogged up her heart and jammed the other gears. It took a long time but I was able to extract all the pieces and put a new gear in her heart.” He put the pieces on the nearby table and folded his arms. “You are a very lucky lady, Captain; your head was already dangerously cold by the time you got here. I got a pump to get some steam in your head because you would’ve died if your brain went any longer without it.”

He turned his attention back to the crew. “As I was saying… her heart was put under a lot of stress by the whole ordeal, so you’ll need to let her rest. No active pastimes, don’t spook her and try to keep her relaxed. She needs time to recover before she can do anything strenuous again.”

“Understood. We’ll be careful around her,” Wonky said with a nod.

Sally looked disappointed. “Aw, Sally...” Piper said, chuckling.

“Gyarrh, Cap’n, ye’ve gone soft!”

Piper put on a fake frown, trying to look as though she’d been insulted. “Well, every tough Captain has a soft side to them, don’t they?”

Seabrass laughed, “Haha, I be kiddin’!” And to Piper’s surprise, he walked right up to her and gave her a hug—a much less tight of a hug than what Sally had given her, but full of just as much love and thought. Piper returned the embrace with a smile.

“Thanks for not dyin’ on us, Cap’n.”

“You’re welcome, Gabriel.” Piper’s voice may had been wobbly but she didn’t care.

Her crew was back.

* * *

The next few hours were quite busy for Piper’s crew. They finally made it to the outpost, where they bid farewell to Rhodia (After a spectacular performance of the song she wrote about them), and picked up some bare necessities, such as water and medical supplies. Dr. Armstrong and Amanda were kind enough to patch up all the injuries the rest of the crew had as well, leaving them with one less problem to worry about. Finally Piper received the paint job she needed, and she looked as good as new—her crewmates did not hesitate to tell her this, of course.

They shoved off again. Their next destination was a general store so they could start stocking up on supplies. They then would go to a ship depot located closer to The Core. They would have to make stops along the way so Dr. Armstrong could visit patients, so it would take a few days—enough for him to make sure Piper was recovering properly.

For now, though, everything that was planned for today was finished. Everyone was fixed, and Piper looked beautiful with her fresh coat of paint. All that was left to do was to move her bed to a different section of the ship, into an identical alcove with a window so she wouldn’t miss out on the starry view.

Piper was just glad that she could nap through it all. She was exhausted by this whole ordeal and wanted to sleep away the fatigue.

 

 

Her mind was full of peaceful thoughts that night.

* * *

Waking up with her crew around her was usually a given; something she didn’t think twice about.

Today, she couldn’t be more thankful for it. Her crew was _alive_ , far away from any threat of danger. They were okay, they were _safe_.

...So why did she have this underlying feeling of dread in the pit of her boiler?

Both the Scrappers and the Royalists were surely set back by their efforts; it would take a long time for them to recover. They wouldn’t be hearing from them for a long while…

_Or would we?_

Piper shook her head. No. They were all together now and they were _safe_. They had to be. Because if they weren’t Piper would make sure they were, no matter the cost.

The crew could tell Piper was restless, but they had to make sure that she followed the repairbot’s orders to a T—which meant that she was banished to a bed once again. She wasn’t happy about her ostracism and the crew knew it. However, they couldn’t really do anything about it except let Piper wallow in her misery and discomfort until she was well again.

They had reached the general store that morning and – what luck! – there was a representative from the ship depot there too. Wonky would go and talk to him about how they would go around getting a new ship. There was also a bar right across a connecting bridge so this was a prime spot to stop at—the crew could both restock on things and let go of all that pent-up stress they had accumulated over the past few days.

As expected, Piper wanted to tag along. Also expected: the repairbot wouldn’t let her. Nobody was really happy about it but there was nothing that could be done. So Billy and Fen decided to stay behind and keep Piper company while the others went about their business. Piper entertained them with her side of the story, telling them everything from the moment her crew was taken away from her to the time she discovered them on that Scrapper warehouse. She even left in the part with the Scrapper annoying her, as embarrassing as that was.

“Blub, blub blub!” Billy said, eyes widened in surprise.

“Yeah, quite an adventure I had to go on...”

“That Scrapper guy sounds funny, but I hope he’s in pieces by now. He deserves it,” said Fen.

Nodding, Piper laid back on her pillow and stuck her arms behind her head. “I was so glad to get him out of my hair… Anyway.” She looked at Fen. “Fen, if you’re comfortable with it, I want to know… what happened to you?”

“My memory’s a bit fuzzy but I think the Scrappers damaged me enough that some sort of hidden program that I wasn’t aware of took over me. I kinda lost control of myself...” Fen shuddered a little bit. “I think I hurt people...”

“Hey, the crew is fine now; remember that.”

“Yeah… Well, the last thing I remembered was me struggling against the Scrappers. That must be when that program took over. The next thing I knew I was materializing over my broken shell in my current form.”

“Oh man, Fen...” Piper shook her head. “To think that there are _this_ many layers to you...”

“It’s not my fault that Vectron made me so complicated. Although I might have coded some of my abilities into myself, I’m not entirely sure… Anyway, something must have happened in all of that that caused me to regain a good chunk of my memories. I’m still trying to process it all.”

“Wonky told me about that earlier. He said you remember being on the Earth before it broke?”

“Yeah, I was. I remember it being so pretty! There was this great big desert and a shiny forest and… and… Piper!” Fen was shivering with excitement, floating all around her head.

“What is it Fen?” Piper asked, putting her hands up in the air like she was trying to catch Fen. Eventually the little sprite managed to calm down, floating down in front of Piper’s face, above her opened palms.

“I remember how the Earth shattered. I was there to see it.”

Piper looked more than surprised; she looked genuinely shocked. “You do?! What happened?!”

Fen was silent, their eyes shifting downwards. It was only then Piper realized the weight behind her question. “Is it a long story?”

“Yeah...”

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

Sighing, Fen flew down and settled onto her lap, where they received some affectionate pats from Piper. She had discovered their love of pets only a few hours ago. She was bored and Fen was right there in front of her, so she reached out and gave them a gentle pat. Fen was ecstatic, leaning into her touch and letting out the loudest purring noises Piper had ever heard. It was the cutest thing and she was delighted despite her exhaustion.

She continued to pet Fen for a few minutes before they finally spoke up.

“It started over four-hundred years ago...”

* * *

“...She left with her friend as the machine exploded, and I never saw her again. She—she promised that she would come back to me! She _promised_!”

Fen was right, it was a very long story that took a while to listen too. Piper remained attentive however and was sure to drink in every little detail. When Fen finished, she could tell that recounting it all took quite an emotional toll on them, leaving them quite upset. She couldn’t blame them, though; from what they told her, they went through a hell of a lot down on the Earth…

“It sounds like it was a very traumatic experience for you Fen, and I’m proud that you sacrificed yourself to get them out of there. You were very brave,” Piper said after a minute. It was the least she could do to comfort them.

“I guess so… But, I miss her. Why didn’t she come find me?!” Fen said in an angry tone.

“Well… What did you say your friend’s name was?”

“Dorothy McCrank, but I just called her ‘Dot’.”

“There could be a million reasons why Dorothy couldn’t keep her promise. From what I’ve heard, the decades following The Blast was an absolute mess. It’s entirely possible that something else was calling for her attention.”

“But… She _always_ kept her promises!”

“...I don’t know Fen. I guess, sometimes… some promises are impossible to keep.”

“ _No!_ I… I won’t believe it. She’s gotta be out there still, searching for me.” Fen flew out of Piper’s grasp and floated away from her, looking forlornly out the small window in the room.

“Fen, steambots generally don’t live that long.”

Fen didn’t respond, watching the Core gleam with hot light. They were clearly distressed and guilt was eating away at Piper. What more could she do to comfort them? She couldn’t bring herself to lie… All she had to offer was cold, hard facts. They only instilled more despair into little Fen.

Unless…

She didn’t like to bestow a false sense of hope to anyone, _much_ _less Fen_ , but it was the only option she had at this point. She didn’t know how it would work out, though—if it didn’t give Fen their ideal results, at the very least, they could be at peace.

“All right Fen… Would it make you feel better if we try to find her, or at least find out what happened to her?”

“...Can we?” they said, already looking a bit more peppy.

“After we finally settle down some, yes. Get a new ship, help Ivanski and Payroll achieve their dreams… This is going to be a much bigger undertaking so we’ll need some time to prepare.”

Piper swore, a switch had been flipped—one minute they were brooding in front of the window and the next they buried their face into Piper’s shoulder, doing the equivalent of what must be happy crying for a Vectron sprite. Their tiny body shook with tearless sobs as they struggled to form words. “Tha—thank you Pi—Piper.”

Piper couldn’t hold back a smile. She started rubbing Fen’s head again, much to their delight.

“Fen… dare I say, you’re adorable.”

“Hey!”

* * *

What sounded like a loud bang shook Piper from her sleep, making her bolt up. Not quite awake and functioning yet, she didn’t realize where she was and thought she was back on the Deja vu—and that bang she heard were definitely the Scrappers _coming for her and her crew—_

She whipped the covers off of herself and tried to jump off—only for… _something_ to happen, and Piper became mindful to the fact that her entire body was radiating with pain and that her limbs were tangled with someone else’s. Two someones, in fact. Next, she noticed the hand on her cheek. She looked up, blinked the fuzziness in her vision away, and realized she was face-to-face with Beatrix.

“Bea, are you okay?”

“What—of course I am, Captain! I should be asking you that; you woke up and immediately tried to leap out of bed; I thought something possessed you at first.”

“You shouldn’t be out of bed, Captain, you’ve got to rest!” added Dora’s voice from behind her. Piper looked at her, then back at Beatrix, the situation starting to settle in. _The ship got destroyed, but we’re safe… we’re okay_.

“I’m sorry, I… I thought I heard some Scrappers coming to get us. It must’ve been a nightmare or something,” Piper said, her voice wavering as she tried to regain control of her breathing.

Dora adopted a vaguely terrified expression after hearing that. “Oh scrap, okay… Bea, help me get her back in bed.”

Carefully the two girls untangled their limbs, lifted Piper by her arms and legs and settled her back in bed. “That’s it, Piper, breath… gosh, I hope your heart’s okay after all of that.”

“I’m okay, Dora, don’t worry about me.”

Dora snapped. “Don’t worry?! Piper, you almost died yesterday. I think we have a right to worry about you; just like you worry about us all the damn time. You’re—”

“Blub!” yelled Billy, seemingly appearing out of nowhere and grabbing Dora by the shoulders. Beatrix looked like she was about to do the same thing but stopped when Billy arrived and she was left with her arms hanging in mid air, her position making it look like she was about to strangle Dora. Piper would’ve laughed at the sight if it weren’t for the tension in the air.

“You’re right… I’m only putting more stress on Piper. I’m sorry, Captain. I.. I don’t even know where that came from.”

Piper shook her head. “No, it’s okay… You have a good and valid reason to be mad at me… It just makes me sad to see you guys worry so much, you know?”

“The same could be said for you.”

“Fair point.” Piper pulled a blanket over her legs. “If it makes you feel any better, _I_ feel better now. Except for all the aching in my limbs...”

“You want me to get some hot compresses? I think the repairbot keeps them in a little furnace in the other room,” said Beatrix.

“That would be great; thanks Bea.”

Bea walked out of the door, leaving just Piper and Dora. Piper then realized a presence was lacking…

“Where’s Fen?”

“They said they wanted to see what Seabrass was doing. He was sulking around the ship earlier and disappeared after we docked. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was sulking somewhere else.”

“Sounds about right, but… why? What’s bothering him this time?”

“You, Captain; he’s worried about you. But he’s not going to admit that out loud.”

“Well next time you see him tell him his Captain orders him to stop worrying, pick his peg off the floor and harness that rage because as soon as I’m recovered we’re going right back into business.”

Dora couldn’t hold in a chuckle at that. “Aye-aye, Captain!”

Piper gave her a smile and eventually, she decided that she would start taking a look at Fen’s body. She was only familiar with critical components and wanted to go in deeper, to see what could be done considering its repair. Billy got bored and left, also deciding to see what Seabrass was up to. He was a hot commodity today!

Left alone, Piper laid back down in bed and pulled the covers over herself again. Her mind started to wander of as it tended to when she was lonely—and, of course, her thoughts went right to her crew and the events that had transpired over the past day.

They had come to save her and they were so _worried_ about her. They had good reason to be, but… She couldn’t help but feel so _badly_ about upsetting them like that. That was the last thing Piper wanted to do for her crew; to bring any unnecessary distress onto them.

She would have to make it up to them, somehow…

_BANG!_

Piper jumped and sat up, looking around for the source of the noise. Was that— _no, it was not the Scrappers, get yourself together Piper…_

She took in a deep breath, and her jitters slowly melted away as she exhaled. What was she thinking, there’s no way the Scrappers would even think to go after them after what they did, no way…

_What if I’m wrong? What if they really do come back for us again?_

_What if they want revenge?_

Try as she might, she couldn’t stop all the what if’s from piling up. They were all very plausible possibilities… And it scared her. If her crew was taken away from her again… Piper didn’t think she’d be able to survive the emotional toll this time.

_That’s why I have to be vigilant more than ever. I don’t want to lose them again._

In fact, if Piper wasn’t restricted to the bed right now she would have gotten up to go check on her crew, to make sure they were okay. But she couldn’t, and, well…

She felt so _lonely_ all of a sudden.

* * *

She must’ve fallen asleep at some point because the next thing Piper knew was that there was this terrible clanging noise that shook her awake. It was pitch black and she couldn’t see a thing. All she heard was the _banging_ , metal pounding against metal—

And oh cog the _screams_ , her crew was in _danger_ and she had to _save them_. Her legs weren’t carrying her fast enough, she couldn’t find her gun anywhere and _they wouldn’t stop screaming_. The Scrappers were taking them away and she couldn’t catch up to them and _no don’t GO—_

* * *

“—aptain? Piper, snap out of it!”

Piper bolted up, bellows struggling for air as steam poured out of her vents. Her heart was pounding and it _really hurt_ and someone’s got her arm and _what is happening—_

“ _Piper!_ ”

The voice was firm and strong enough to get her to finally stop struggling and try to catch her breath. Slowly she regained control of her breathing, the steam venting out of her at a considerably slower pace. With shaky hands she quickly swept away the tears forming in her optics, hoping no one had noticed.

“Hey, Cap’n—”

A touch to her shoulder which she did not appreciate, her jumpy state only aggravated further. “Cap’n, it’s okay, it just be me!”

Piper stopped struggling again at the voice. Seabrass… That’s right, she saved her crew… Well, more like they saved her. They were _safe_.

_No they weren’t_

Fighting desperately to hold in her tears, Piper took a shuddering breath and put a hand to her chest. Her heart was still racing, that ache pulsing with each pumping valve and turning gear.

Seabrass tried prodding at her again, “Are ye okay, Cap’n?”

Piper immediately took on her leadership facade. She could work this out on her own, her crew shouldn’t be bothered with this. “I’m okay, Seabrass.” She looked up and noticed that the others had sat up in the sleeping bags they had set up in her room; no doubt having been woken up by the commotion. “What time is it? You should go back to bed.”

“I don’t think you’re exactly okay. Dora told us earlier how you leaped out of bed earlier,” Fen added.

The aforementioned ‘bot shook her head, concern etched all over her face. “I should’ve known better, I’ve never seen such wild eyes since that one unidentified beast in—”

“Is that necessary to discuss right now?” Wonky interrupted as he walked into the room. “There are much more pressing matters at hand.” He came up to Piper’s bed and knelt down, giving her a glass of water. “You lost a lot of steam just now so you should drink up. We don’t want you to get dehydrated on top of all the other issues.”

Piper snatched the glass out of his hand and drank. She was irritated; Wonky had seen that look on her face one too many times. It was no difficult task to pinpoint why she was aggravated this time: she didn’t want her crew to worry about her. He had heard her say it many times during the past two days… and he was getting sick of it. She worried about her crew all the time, why couldn’t they do the same for her?

She had been carrying all this weight on her shoulders long enough. How much would it take for her to admit it?

No small amount of goading, Wonky was soon to find out.

“Piper...” he watched as she stopped drinking momentarily, focusing her gaze on him. Gently, he placed his hand over Piper’s hand; the one that wasn’t holding the glass. Best to start slowly. “We need to talk… You’ve been holding in something. I don’t know what it is, but holding it in for this long can’t be—”

“I’m fine.” Piper pulled her hand away and continued drinking, using her other hand to pull up her blankets over herself. “—I probably just need some rest, that’s all.”

“Ma’am, you’re avoiding the point. You were screaming in your sleep. Obviously you saw something that terrified you, how can you be _okay_ after that?”

“I _am_ fine, why won’t you believe me?!” Piper’s hands were shaking; she looked about ready to crush the glass in her hand with her grip.

“I can’t; not with all these red flags being raised left and right. Just ask your crew; they’ve seen how you’ve been acting these past two days.”

Scoffing, Piper looked around at everybody. Every single person she laid her optics on were nodding, concern painting their features.

“You haven’t been sleeping all that great,” said Fen.

“You’re on edge. All the little noises the ship makes makes you jump,” Valentine added.

“It hurts us to see ya so scared Boss,” Sally said. “What’s botherin’ ya?”

“Nothing, I’m okay!”

“Piper, please… don’t push us away again. Please let us help you.”

“ _I said I’m fine!_ ”

Piper’s breaking point had been reached. Her entire body shivered like a flame on a candle as she shouted, her eyes tightly squeezed shut. Finally she threw her glass off the side of the bed, causing it to shatter into pieces as it hit the floor.

Slightly off-put by her outburst (To be honest, this wasn’t out of the range of reactions that he was expecting from her.), Wonky had jumped away from her bed a little bit. He was quick, though, to return to her side, seeing her state of distress. Her entire frame was trembling, shaking hands trying to wipe away all the tears brewing in her eyes. She wasn’t having much luck, the tears not letting up as they spilled down her faces.

Piper was definitely not okay, yet Wonky had to say those words one more time, to confirm it…

One hand on her shoulder and another wiping away a tear, he asked, “Piper, are you okay?”

A long moment of silence followed, only broken by Piper’s quiet, broken sobbing. “I don’t know.”

The little pump in her heart screeched to a halt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the reason It took so long for me to get this finished was, as you might have guessed, the ending. Turns out all I had to do was rearrange a bunch of scenes, heh. Now don't expect the next chapter next week though, the weekly updates for this fic have definitely set sail now.
> 
> I am excited to finish this story though because it will become my longest finished story aksjdhakjsdha


	10. Promise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hooray last chapter les’gooooooo
> 
> Pssst stay around till the end there’s a surprise waiting for you ;)

Wonky knew the moment Piper started hyperventilating her heart wasn’t okay. Trying not to panic himself, he drew himself closer to Piper, cupping her face and doing his best to whisper calming words to her. “Piper, shhhh, breathe, shhhh...”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Seabrass standing there, stunned and looking completely helpless. Wonky gave him a slight nod and Seabrass said something to Ivanski, who left (to presumably get the repairbot). Seabrass came around the other side of Piper’s bed. Wonky had never seen him look so worried— _worried_ was probably an understatement. Seabrass looked _terrified_.

He took one of Piper’s hands in his own, protectively placing his hook on top of it. “Speak to us, Cap’n. What’s wrong?”

Piper glanced from Wonky to Seabrass, her body shaking with each strained and gasping breath. “Chest hurts,” her faceplates buckled in pain as she leaned into Wonky’s shaking but reassuring touch. Seabrass felt her grip his hand and he didn’t hesitate to squeeze it back, letting her know that he’s there, and he’s not going anywhere.

He felt a presence by his side. Billy had joined him at the side of the bed, gripping it tightly and boring into the Captain with an alarmingly unfaltering, yet worried gaze. The others were coming, too. Hesitant little steps, they took, but they were coming.

“Th—they took you guys away,” Piper wheezed.

“We’re here now, Ma’am. You came for us, remember?”

She shook her head and brought her hands up to her face, which prompted Wonky to gently remove his. Her clamps curled around her cheeks with a stiff, fierce grip as tears spilled out of her eyes, dribbling over her fingers and down her wrist. “They were gonna scrap you guys; _you were gonna die_. I was all alone; I didn’t want to be alone, and—and—”

Scooting closer, Seabrass grabbed her arm to catch her attention. “Cap’n. Look at me.”

She did. Straight into his eyes; those eyes that have seen countless storms over the raging sees. Her eyes held many tales of her own, ones of pain and heartbreak but also so much joy. “Cap’n,” he said with a shuddering breath. “We’re here for ye now. We’re not gonna leave ye alone again.”

Piper protested, “But what if they come back? What if they’re angry for what we did and they’ll board the ship and take you guys away again and—and—”

“ _I’ll scrap ‘em all to hell if they so dare, gyarrh!_ ”

“ _Gabriel_.” A hand landed roughly on Seabrass’s shoulder—he didn’t need to look to tell it was Wonky; the stern tone of voice was enough. “Now is not a good time to let your anger go unchecked.”

He whipped his shoulder out of Wonky’s grip, rage powering his every movement. “I have _every right to be mad!_ Them filthy freaks hurt Cap’n; look at her! She looks like a whale just swallowed her ship!”

Piper was shaking, her limbs rattling, optics wild with fear, face tensed, tears spilling out of her eyes so quickly it didn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon. She had truly been broken and had never appeared so weak, fragile and emotional before. She was _traumatized_.

“Move out of the way!”

Seabrass whipped around—then quickly moved out of the way as Dr. Armstrong rushed into the room, kneeling at Piper’s bedside. Behind him, he was wheeling the machine he used with her before, and it was already up and running, ready to pump that precious steam to her head.

“Breathe, Captain, deep breaths.” He held the back of her head with a steady hand, a screwdriver in the other to undo the screws holding her hair plate down. She whimpered at the pain the sudden movement caused—Wonky and Seabrass closed in on the other side, comforting hands on her arm and shoulder.

With her hair plate off, the doctor grabbed a tube out of the machine and stuck it directly into her head. He set the hair plate aside and removed the leather gloves he was wearing, backing up with his arms crossed.

“Doctor,” Dora piped up, “Couldn’t you do more for her? Can’t you give her heart a jump start or something?”

“Absolutely not while she is in a panicked state like this. It’s why her heart stopped in the first place; the only way for it to start again is for her to calm down. And I...” sighing tiredly, he rubbed his face. “I’ve done what I could; give her head steam, tell her to take deep breaths. I can’t help her emotionally because I don’t know her as well as you folks do.”

“Thank you Doctor,” said Wonky. He looked back at the rest of the crew. “I think we can take care of it from here...”

“We can?” Valentine received an elbow to his chassis. “Oh! Yes, we can!” he yelped, holding his side, which was now sore.

Dr. Armstrong backed up to the wall and leaned on it—giving the crew space to crowd around Piper’s bed.

She took one look at all of them. And started to shake more. “I’m sorry...”

“...Piper—”

“I’m sorry I let you guys get taken away, I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you, I’m sorry I’m such a _horrible_ Captain, I—”

“Captain not horrible!” Ivanski said.

“He’s right, Piper; you’re not horrible and you’re not to blame for what happened to us.” More hands grabbed her hands and shoulders, making her reel with guilt. She didn’t deserve them, not one bit—

“I—if I’d lost you guys, I… I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself. You guys are family to me.” She shook her head. “I don’t think I can stand being alone again...”

“If it makes you feel better, Captain, I don’t like being alone either,” said Fen.

“I don’t think there are many people that like it, actually,” Beatrix added.

Wonky nodded, then gave her hand a squeeze. “Is this what’s been bothering you, Piper?” A nod. “...Why haven’t you told us about it earlier?”

The following moment was filled only by the sounds of the machine pumping steam into Piper’s head. It felt too quiet; too uneasy. “I… I didn’t want to bother you guys,” she finally admitted, “You already have your own problems to deal with… and I’m the _Captain_ ; I’m the one to solve problems, not ‘cause them… I’m sor—”

“Oh, _Piper_.”

Her head snapped up. She looked at Wonky.

“You’re not bothering us. You’re not causing a problem. Your fears are real and sensible and I’m not going to put it past you for having them. It’s okay to not want to be alone.”

“I’m supposed to be strong, and now… look at me,” she sobbed. “I’m not okay.”

“It’s okay to not be okay. And you’ve been _more_ than strong for us Piper. The fact that you came out to save us all by yourself proves that and _more_. You can stand down, now, it’s okay.

“ _We’re going to help you through this. Together. We promise._ ”

In that moment, the crew could see the overwhelming emotion come over her, tears springing to her eyes once again.

Billy suddenly came in to hug her, pressing his head against her shoulder. Wonky joined. Fen floated up to her face, nuzzling against her cheek.

She wasn’t okay. Piper wasn’t afraid to admit that now. But, with her crew, _her family_ there to support her…

“Tell your heart to beat again, that’s it...”

She _would_ be okay one day.

The little pump in her heart slowly started chugging again.

“Thank you,” she sobbed, but this time it was out of the realization that her crew loved her _just as much_ as she did them.

She didn’t have to deal with this alone anymore.

* * *

Out of everything that could’ve woken her up the next morning, Piper didn’t expect it to be a huge bouquet of flowers being shoved into in her face. _Radiant flowers_ , at that. She’s never seen some of these kinds of flowers before. They were gorgeous and that was all her groggy mind could register at the moment.

Well, that, and the dull headache in the top of her head. She had a _tube_ stuck into her head last night, no wonder it hurt so much.

What really snapped her into reality, however was Fen screeching a thunderous “HEY!” right near her auditor. She bolted up with a yelp and covered the side of her head, sleepily mumbling “Don’t do that” at Fen. She almost forgot she let them sleep next to her last night…

The bundle of flowers was left at her lap. Cradling it like it was glass, she scooped it up and examined the blossoms further, now that she was more awake. Some of the flowers in there looked expensive… who went out of their way to get these for her?

“I don’t understand why they call it a _get well_ present. I mean, a well would be useful, but in today’s day and age it would be tedious to go to it every time you needed water! So I got you these instead.”

Ah, of course it’s Valentine. The one who was most annoying was also the sweetest, Piper had found out when she had first recruited him. Despite his tendency to prank everyone and quip puns every other minute, he had a big heart. She was pretty sure it was as big as his mustache. Maybe even bigger.

Piper breathed in the flowery scents. They smelled lovely. “Aw, thank you Val...”

“You like them?”

She almost laughed. He was surprised? “No… I love them! Val, they’re beautiful. Thank you so much.”

He was close enough for a hug—and she did just that, wrapping an arm around his neck—she could tell, he didn’t expect it at all. He froze up like an ice cube before eventually returning the hug, getting some soot on her with his chimney sweeper hand—but she didn’t care. It was the thought that counted.

“Maybe next time you can avoid nearly shoving me off the bed when you give her something?” Fen complained.

“Sorry! I was excited...”

“Oh yeah, Fen,” said Piper, letting go of Valentine. “How’d you sleep last night?”

“Really good, actually! No flashbacks or anything...”

“That’s great to hear.”

“As soon as we get another ship, Wonky and I are going to see what we can do about fixing Fen’s body,” said Dora, who had just walked in the room. She was holding a bunch of pillows and blankets. Ivanski followed behind her with an armful of books—and for him, and armful was a _lot_. There must have been at least twenty books.

Dora came to a halt when she laid eyes on Piper and the bundle of flowers in her arms. “Valentine! I thought I told you to wait for us...”

“I’m sorry; I got excited...”

“Whatever, don’t worry about it.” She walked up to the foot of the bed, plopping down the ball of fluffy things. “This is also for you, Captain. Definitely softer than what you’re sleeping in.”

“Ivanski brought books for Captain!” he proudly lifted the pile of books in his arms, showing them off. “Something to do while stuck in bed.”

Piper frowned. “Now don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the gifts and I love them, I really do, but how much did you pa—”

“Don’t worry about that! We just lost our ship anyway so of course a lot of money is going to go into replacing stuff. We can figure out how to get more money later; these are gifts for _you_ and we _got them for you_ because you’re our frie—I mean, family!”

That overwhelmed look had sprung to Piper’s face again. The fact that her crew saw her as family, too… “Oh my goodness… I don’t deserve you fellas, thank you...”

“Yes you do! You’re a great Captain and we wouldn’t want anyone else in your place,” said Fen. “Really, you’re—…Piper?”

Piper had completely covered herself in one of the fluffy blankets Dora gave her. She looked like she was shaking a little bit.

“Piper, are you okay?”

Fen received a very high-pitched, indecipherable mumbling as a response. Were they supposed to be hearing words? Because they certainly weren’t.

“Uhhh. What was that?”

The mumbling was repeated, but louder and a little slower. They could hear something along the lines of her not deserving them.

“She’s just embarrassed, I think,” Dora said.

“It’s okay to cry, Piper, we’re not gonna laugh at you or anything.”

More mumbling, but this time they could make out something that sounded like “I have a reputation.” Which was said loudly and drawn-out.

“We know, Piper. We’re not gonna tell anyone; don’t worry.”

* * *

They had arrived at the shipyard that morning, and Wonky, Sally, Seabrass and Payroll had went to check out the ships while the others stayed behind with Piper. Wonky had already gotten a little preview of some of the ships thanks to the representative he met up with earlier, but he wanted to look at the ships in person; to make sure what he was getting was of top-notch quality.

The group stepped off of one of the more pricey ships. “There was something up with the pistons in that one. I don’t like it.”

“Gyarrh, we’ve look at a ton of ships already!” Seabrass complained. “Does everything have to be perfect?”

“Why yes, if said ship is going to be both your home and means of transportation, you’d want it to be solid and well-built, don’t you think?”

“And if we’re going to name it after Boss, we want what’s best for her!” Sally added.

“We’re naming it after the Captain?” Payroll asked.

Wonky nodded. “Fen suggested it before we left, and I think it’s a wonderful idea.”

“But ye’ve got to admit, _The Piper Faraday_ don’t flow very smooth.”

“Yeah, that’s why I was thinking… We could name it figuratively.”

Sally frowned in confusion. “Huh? Fi-ger-ay-tively?”

“What’s the first word that comes to your mind that best describes Piper?”

“I dunno, er,” Seabrass shrugged, “overprotective.”

Wonky chuckled, “Haha, you’re not wrong.”

The other suggestions came: “Cool” from Sally, “Clever” from Payroll, and “Inspiring” from Wonky.

“...None ‘o them quite fit a ship, huh?”

“Well, think about it, mates. There has to be something that fits.”

They walked up to a ship that was only slightly larger than the _Déjà vu_ was. Wonky opened the door and breathed in that pleasant “new ship smell,” as he liked to call it.

“I’ve got a good feeling about this one.”

* * *

“Blub blub blub!”

“Uuugh, five more minutes, please,” Piper groaned.

Billy started to put more force into his endless poking, starting to go for Piper’s face. “Bluuuuub.”

“Okay, okay, I’m up,” Piper surrendered, reluctantly throwing the fuzzy blankets off of herself and setting aside the book she had fallen asleep while reading. She felt so _cozy_ and didn’t want to wake up, but clearly there was something more important to attend to—otherwise Billy wouldn’t be trying to detatch one of her limbs with his reckless poking.

“What’s going on, Billy?”

“Blu-blub!”

“A surprise, huh?”

“And you’ll have to come outside to see it!...I mean, only if you’re feeling up to it.” Fen floated above her face and backed up as she sat up.

“Yeah, I’m up to it.” _I sure hope my body is_ , she thought to herself. She hadn’t tried walking since her surgery—only because the doctor forbid it. He should be fine with her walking now, though, right?

Piper swung her legs off the bed and got up. But her legs wobbled and she stumbled forward, Billy having to catch and steady her.

“Haven’t quite got my balance back yet,” she chuckled, “Thanks Billy.”

“Blub.” He led her out of the room, slowly and methodically, Fen following every step of the way.

In the lobby, Piper was met with a surprising sight: the rest of her crew was gathered around one of the docking doors. A ship was docked and there was a red ribbon hanging in the doorway, shiny and glistening in the moonlight.

“You guys got a new ship already? I mean, Wonky, I trust that you know ships well and stuff, but—you didn’t come to me first?”

“We didn’t pay a cent yet,” said Wonky. “If we end up not liking this ship, we can just return it, no strings attached. Besides, I believe that this one’s a keeper.” Seabrass handed him a pair of scissors, which he held out to her. “We would be honored if you cut the ribbon on our new ship, Ma’am.”

“We named her after you!” Fen said.

Piper didn’t move, the scissors held limply in her grasp, looking at the bright red ribbon between the doorway up ahead. For a moment she was overcome by pure joy, to the point where her hands were shaking, and she couldn’t move her feet off the floor. Fen floated in front of her. “What are you waitin’ for, c’mon!”

“I’m—I’m coming,” she said, voice flighty and restless, and she walked up to the ribbon. She held the blades open around it for a second, before pressing the handles together, making a clean cut.

The whole crew cheered and she received some pats on the back, and then they started filtering in—before she even set foot on the ship, she could already hear her crewmates bickering over which spot would be theirs. “Welcome aboard the _Faithful_ , Ma’am.”

“ _Faithful_...” she echoed the word quietly, almost hesitantly—didn’t Fen say they named the ship after her…? Did they mean…

“Because you’re faithful to your crew, Piper. Not every crew gets to have a Captain as loyal, caring and loving as you.”

Piper was silent. She looked totally stunned; like she didn’t know what to say. Then her shoulders started to shiver.

“Piper?”

“I,” she sobbed, tears springing anew, “I don’t know how to thank you guys enough...”

Wonky gave her a hug from the side, squeezing her shoulder. “Being our Captain is thanks enough. We promise.”

She looked at him, then grabbed the hand on her shoulder, leaning her head on his. It was only settling in for her, now that everyone was together, just how much she _missed_ her crew. She never wanted to feel that terrible, crushing lonely feeling ever again.

“Thank you, Wonky,” she whimpered, holding onto his hand like he would vanish if she let go. He did likewise, hugging her tight, being the comfort, the support she needed in her time of weakness.

Just like a good crewmate would do.

* * *

The next week was a time of recovery not just for Piper, but for all the crew. This whole fiasco had drained them, physically and emotionally, and now that they were together again, on a ship of their own, they felt like they could finally rest and recuperate. Piper wasn’t exactly discharged until the week ended, however. Dr. Armstrong had to extend her stay by a few days because of the little episode she had that night. He wanted to make sure she was properly recovering, and that she would have no issues once she was out of his care. Thankfully, he determined that her condition had improved enough to be released from medical watch at the end of the week, giving her that freedom she most desperately wanted. She wasn’t foolish, though—Piper made sure to take care of herself, taking no risks to ensure that she didn’t overwork herself.

During the week, Wonky had also gotten practice piloting the new ship. He got used to the controls quickly and easily, as it was a similar setup to what he had on the _Déjà vu_. Everyone knew that this ship was definitely a keeper—and the first errand made once Piper was discharged was a trip to the shipyard to confirm their purchase.

Once part of the crew recovered and felt comfortable enough again, they were taking on jobs left and right to help make up for all the money that they had to spend. It would be a long road but it was certainly doable.

Only thing was, Piper was a nervous wreck every time part of her crew went on a mission. Even more so than she usually was. But her crew was with her now and they made sure to let her know that they were there for her, and would be with her and each other if something went wrong. And whenever the missions were done, and the rest of the crew returned, she greeted them with eager words and lots of hugs. The crew noticed that she was a lot more open with her feelings now—and that wasn’t a bad thing. (“Just don’t spread any rumors that will taint my reputation,” she said.)

With the money they received, Wonky and Dora were able to start their next project: repairing Fen’s shell. Some trips out to Deep Space might have to be made, but it was worth it as long as they could help their friend.

* * *

“It’s done?”

“All fixed.” Dora patted the back of the shell. It looked all shiny and brand new—besides the scraps that were still functional, of course. Fen was attached to those parts so Dora and Wonky made sure to try and keep them. “And I learned a lot in the process. I’ve never seen something like Vectron’s anatomy before and it’s incredibly fascinating.”

“Some parts… couldn’t be replaced, sadly,” Wonky said, voice full of regret.

Fen looked concerned, to say the least. “Which ones?”

Piper walked into the room, holding a red scarf in her arms. “We know how much that scarf you wore meant to you, but… it’s seen better days.” She held out the scarf, allowing Fen to get a better look at it. “I realize that scarf probably can’t be replaced, but… this is the best we could do.”

“Captain, are you kidding me? I _love_ it. Thank you so much.”

“That’s a relief to hear,” Piper said with a chuckle. She walked up to the shell and carefully wrapped the new scarf around its head and neck—there were even holes for the antennae, Fen noticed. How thoughtful!

“So… now what?”

“I think I can just fly in there and start controlling it. But if I’m wrong, do not hesitate to shut me down again. I won’t be angry, I promise.”

“All right.” The others backed up, watching Fen.

Fen flew into their shell’s chest, then spread their tendrils of power, settling into the familiar components and codes, embracing the new ones—

And then they opened their eyes, finding three very worried steambots looking at them. “What? I’m fine.” To further prove themself, they slid off the table, and moved their arms around.

“Haha, you’re working!”

“I am, and it feels great! Thank you Dora; thank you Wonky.”

“Anytime!” they replied in unison.

“Fen,” said Piper, “c’mere, I wanna show you something.”

She led them to her brand-new desk, where a book was opened to the first page. She pointed out some of the writing on the page to Fen. “This is your friend’s name, Fen. She had this book at some point.”

Fen squinted at the paper. Now that they were back in their shell, it was much easier for Piper to read their body language and to tell how they were feeling. They seemed puzzled. “That’s her name?”

“...Oh yeah, I didn’t finish teaching you how to read, huh?”

“Yeah...”

“I guess we’ll take care of that next, then. Anyway,” she pointed to another name in the book, “Dora also had this book. That’s her name there.”

“What kind of a book is it?”

“It’s a fairy tale. I haven’t read it all yet, but I’m guessing this is one of the books Dora was complaining about when she was telling us about the queen’s silly beliefs.”

“Huh.”

“The book used to be part of the Royal Library System, but apparently when we scrapped the queen, someone raided the library and stole a bunch of books, and they’ve started popping up in stores recently. No one knows who did it and the Royalists still have a huge bounty on their head.”

“Is it as much as yours?”

“Nope. Far from it.”

Fen giggled. “So, um… what now?”

“I was thinking we could send Billy into the Royal Library to find out some more info. He’s never had as much drama with the Royalists as the rest of us so I bet he could go in and out without much fuss.”

Fen looked down, their antennae drooping with them. “...I hope Dot’s still out there.”

“Oh, Fen...” Piper put a hand on their back. “I hope so too. I promise; we’re gonna get you some answers, okay?”

“...Okay.”

* * *

_**One year later…** _

“What’s going on, Ma’am?”

“Ivanski says he’s got lovely students in his dance academy, and Payroll’s business is booming.” Piper set the letters down. “I’m so happy for them.”

“Don’t forget, Ma’am, you’re the one who helped them achieve their current positions.”

“That’s right. It only felt like yesterday we were fighting alongside each other. Time flies...” She stood up and walked over to Fen’s desk. They were hunched over a paper and scribbling furiously.

From what Piper could see, this was definitely the clearest sketch yet. The papers littered about them were messy, vague sketches that could barely be called a face. Fen’s ailing memory was slowly returning to them, though, and over the past year they took up drawing, determined to sketch the face of their friend—an image that was gradually coming back to them, annoyingly slow, but it was there.

And then it was done, Fen throwing the pencil aside and holding up the paper. She had pigtails, freckles—bright passionate eyes, goggles atop her head and a tattered scarf wrapped around her neck.

“Fen, you’re an amazing artist.”

“Thank you…”

Fen set down the paper and stood up. “...Have we found out anything new yet?”

“From what I’ve heard, your friend was apparently a miraculous engineer. What she did, however, we’re still trying to figure out.”

“...That was the last library...”

“I know…” Piper suddenly pulled out her rifle from her belt, hefting it above her shoulder. “We’re gonna have to bring out the big guns to find out any more info.”

“What?!”

“What she’s saying is,” Wonky said, “is that the Royalists still have history records that haven’t been released to the public. And we would like to see those records.”

“Oh.”

“We’re gonna shoot up some more bad guys?!” Sally said excitedly.

“It’s just like back when we were tracking down info on Vectron when it was still in the Queen’s possession!” said Beatrix.

“Gyarrh, I hope our target isn’t a genocidal maniac this time.”

Valentine came over and looked at the sketch, “She looks pretty harmless to me!”

“Hey, Dorothy was a fearless fighter!”

“Blub?”

“Shall we set off, Ma’am?” asked Wonky.

“Yes, let’s go!” Piper put in a few pins on the maps hanging above her desk, charting their next destination. She glanced at Fen—they looked terribly doubtful, their head and antennae low.

“We’ll find out what happened to her, Fen… I promise.”

They perked up, nodding. “I know. Let’s go!”

And so the faithful captain set forward, excited to go on a new mission in the company of her crew.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OH MY GOD IT’S DONE!!! IT’S FINALLY DONE THE DAY HAS FINALLY ARRIVED AND I’M SO HAPPY AAAAAA
> 
> Okay I’m gonna try to keep this as brief as possible. I wrote the majority of this fic earlier this year. I had some bad medical issues going on and I had no clue what was wrong with me. I was frustrated, sad, scared, and the only way I could deal with it at the time was to vent out all my feelings into this fic—so, you can imagine how much this fic means to me.
> 
> At times I felt a lot like Piper felt in this fic. A burden. Especially to family. My family assures me, I’m not bothering them, but still, I fear… I guess that’s another reason why I wrote this. You’re not gonna be a burden, it’s okay—it’s a message I needed to hear, not just from others but also from myself. I’m still struggling to convince myself. But it’s gonna be okay, one day, I know it. I’ll conquer that fear, I’ll heal, and I’ll have my friends and family there every step of the way.  
> I am not a burden. I don’t know who needs to hear it, but neither are you. You deserve the comfort, the support, the help you need.
> 
> Y’all. Thank you so much for joining me on this journey, through all the angry ramblings on my Tumblr, the hype, the screaming, the tears—all of it. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have made it this far without all of you.
> 
> From the bottom of my heart...
> 
> (Here's the link if you want to see the image full size, AO3 didn't want me to make the image clickable no matter what I tried hhhh: <https://i.ibb.co/1fBnftt/Untitled.gif>)


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